Dark Chronicles
by Damos Taranth
Summary: A very high-level mistake causes a huge problem: ultimate power over the world's pokemon is handed over to the wrong person - Ash. He uses this to achieve his dream and finally 'catch them all', taking all the pokemon on the planet... and how can he be st
1. General Information

Introduction Hello and welcome, to the new and compact package of Dark Chronicles. I will be your introductory paragraph for today.   
I've decided to finally follow FF.net regulation and put the Dark Chronicles thing into a single story instead of several floating throughout the fanfiction section. Yay. I sacrificed over thirty reviews to do this. You'd all better appreciate it.   
Anyway, general fic information... 

Name: Dark Chronicles 

Rating: R 

Why?: Violence, bit o' language here'n'there. Nothing raunchy, yet. 

Genre: Pokemon. If you dun like it, dun read it. 

Setting: This is based about 4-5 years after the show, but it's assuming quite heavily that the Johto league never happened, and doesn't exist. G/S pokemon will be making their appearances around the place, but Johto dun exist. K? 

Disclaimer dealy: Pokemon belongs to all the nice people who own pokemon. Not me. The same goes for the characters Ash, Misty, Brock, Jessie, James, Meowth, the Jenny and Joy clones, Gary, and all the rest of the characters you've seen appear on the show here and there.   
However, the characters Jessica, Keira, Liam, Patrick, Rob, Damian and the guardians Sati, Carnak, Purity, and Florasaur are the property of either myself or the person who they are based off/created them. This list will grow. Believe it. 

Now, you'll see a little "Next Chapter" button somewhere around here. Now would be a good time to press it. Read on...   



	2. Prologue

Unnamed story Prolouge 

Sprawled on the floor of the room it had been placed in, a pokemon cursed silently. Silently, not because it didn't want to offend anyone nearby - it would have loved to - but because it simply didn't have the energy to move itself enough to talk, even psychically.   
_Pathetic... how could we have made such a mistake?_ It asked itself for the thousanth time. The locked room was designed to drain it's energy and keep it in a state of perpetual weakness and pain, but nothing it was doing could compare to the mental torture it was putting itself through.   
It's mind was starting to blur from the fatigue, pain, hunger... it's thoughts blending together into an awful swirling slideshow of the long, horrible memories of the events that had landed it here... A trail that started almost fifteen years ago... 

~-~-~-~

Pallet... a peaceful country town with a small, content population. Little happened here, although it was the home of Oak, somewhat younger than the silver-haired eccentric that most people knew him as at the present. He was quite active for his already advanced age, his hair a darkish brown that had only recently begun to show greyish stripes around the edges. His laboratory was quite large, the long acres in which the hundreds of pokemon he kept and studied lived spreading across east of the town. Many of the townfolk would often come into the lab and field to help look after the pokemon, or play with them, and a more content relationship between the two groups could not be imagined.   
Oak was studying a trainer's Weepinbell when his daughter, a recently-married young lady of twenty-three, ran into the room with a huge smile on her face and something in her hand.   
"Daddy, daddy, look!" She cried, jumping on and hugging him hard. He was taken slightly by suprise, and the Weepinbell looked up, confused.   
"What, what is it, sweetheart?" He gasped, trying to pry her off far enough so he could breathe.   
"Look!" She showed him the tester she was holding. "I'm pregnant!"   
Through one of the many high windows of the complex, a stately pokemon watched the two celebrate over this luck with a knowing smile, then set off for another house.   
Another girl - much younger, barely out of her teens - sat crying after doing the same test. It was positive; she was pregnant too, from when she'd lost her way after a bit of a drink with her friends in Viridian City. She'd strayed into an alley and... she didn't want to think about it.   
The pokemon watched from a distant rooftop, not wanting to get close enough to be seen. It mourned the woman's predicament, but if things went right... the child would become powerful enough to protect her from anything...   
Though the pokemon's body lay sprawled in the cell in the present, it's mind flew wild through the memory. As if it were a third-person spectator over the scene, it watched itself, nearly fifteen years younger, watch the poor brunette slowly cry herself to sleep, before returning to the first pair, who had now been joined by the husband; The three of them had joined into a sort of merry dance. Strange, that the same event could drive people to such different extremes of emotion.   
Only staying to watch the trio for a short time, it quickly returned to the other, watching her sobbing in her sleep. _Was that it? _thought the appiration watching the memory. _Was my judgement clouded by my sympathy for that poor woman?_

And then the view shifted... Years passed in a blur. It lived in the city, managing to avoid getting seen by the populace. The winter was long and hard, and both women had their children. And, unexpectedly, both tables were turned... Oak's daughter's birth was hard, and she died; Pallet's meagre medical staff just wasn't enough to save her. The husband ran away, and was not seen again. Oak mourned for days, but brought up the boy as his own, around the pokemon which he eventually came to train.   
The other's birth went smoothly, a few months later, and she cared for the boy herself, telling him that his father had been a pokemon trainer before him. He never asked where his father was.   
And it left the town, leading his own life, coming back when the two boys were old enough to get their first pokemon. And so, it looked over as the trainers Ash Ketchum and Gary Oak began their pokemon journey...   
  
The testing began with Ash... it called up a powerful storm, challenging Ash to get through with an incooprative and half-dead Pikachu and a flock of Spearows on his tail. His loyalty to his Pikachu shone through and the Pikachu saved his life, all but killing the flock, and Ash survived and brought the pokemon to the next city for treatment. And then he went to challenge Gary... and for the rest of both their journeys it watched them from afar, testing them time after time, and they both shone through easily. But the time came for the choice... and it was important, the very fate of the world at stake, maybe. Both had done it so well that it was impossible to choose... Both had, in fact, become pokemon masters - Ash of the Orange League, Gary of the Indigo. How could one decide between two such perfect targets?   
But... Years later, weeks before the present... The time had come... They could delay no more... 

~-~-~-~

Three very strange figures perched on a high crevasse on a mountain wall, overlooking three more figures walking through the valley below them.   
"I still say we should give them more time..."   
"It's dangerous..."   
"No telling what could happen if we choose the wrong one..."   
"We can't." Another figure said from behind them. They respectfully moved aside as the fourth stared down at them. "He has more compassion with his pokemon."   
"The other is stronger..." Started one. "Isn't there some way we can tell?"   
"No... it is time, I know. It must be done now..."   
"Then let us go."   
"Yes..."   
One by one, they launched themselves from the ledge, swooping down upon the unsuspecting three... But the fourth stayed, watching from afar... 

~-~-~-~

Ash was, in fact, typically in mid-argument with Misty when a bird, much taller than them, coloured a blue so light it was almost white. Ash and his friends stopped in their tracks, and Tracey muttered one, unbelieving word: "Articuno..."   
Two more fluttered down behind him - one a bright yellow, feathers arranged in very spiky patterns and very threatening-looking; The other red with a crest and long tail which fluttered in a way which suggested flickering flames. Tracey was shuddering with disbelief - this was a pokemon watcher's dream.   
"Good morning, Ash Ketchum." The Articuno said as it bowed - quite weird, from a bird. "We've been sent to fetch you... our master believes you have something he needs..."   
"Master?"   
"You can talk?"   
"Yes... We'd love to stay and chat but the master's quite urgent, so..." Articuno turned, offering his back to Ash. "Please climb on and we'll take you."   
"What about us?" Misty asked.   
"I'm sorry, you can't come. Moltres and Zapdos will take you to wherever you wish to go, but Ash must come with me."   
"What?"   
"Please do not ask questions. Ash?" Articuno guestured. Ash shrugged.   
"Sounds important... I'll see you later, guys..."   
"Bye, Ash..." Misty whispered as he climbed onto Articuno's back, and the ice bird flapped upwards, soon becoming invisible against the bright sunlight.   
"Don't worry, he'll be safe..." Said Moltres.   
"If he's the one..." Zapdos muttered under his breath. Moltres shot him an angry look, then the two of them stood ready to take the other humans to their destinations... 

~-~-~-~

"Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town." Said a voice from the shadows. "Articuno, you may leave. Ash, come in."   
Articuno bowed and flew out, and Ash moved cautiously forward. Pikachu, on his shoulder, looked very curious.   
"Come on, I haven't got all day. Get moving!" It called impatiently. Ash was shocked out his slow walk and ran forward, tripping on a loose stone and catapulting forward uncontrollably, but then stopped. He found himself caught in what appeared to be a heavy, multicoloured sheet. Closer examination revealed it to be... feathered?   
A voice chuckled by his ear. "Clumsy, Ash. However, your Pikachu..."   
Pikachu had been thrown off his shoulder and landed hard on the ground. He cried out and ran to comfort it, before looking at the creature behind him.   
It appeared to be another bird, wildly multicoloured with long feathers sticking out in every direction. A very long beak protuded from it's small head, on a long, twisting neck. It looked very wild, but strong, and very... regal. Powerful.   
"Interesting. You would have your own pokemon full priority over even looking at me, an undiscovered, one of a kind pokemon. I haven't seen such an attitude in a long time..."   
"What are you?" Ash thought the bird seemed familiar... had seen it somewhere before...   
"My name? I have no true pokemon name. However, I have chosen my own name: Houou. The Legendary Phoenix, lord of all pokemon." With that, it spread it's wings wide, showing an impressive multicoloured wingspan. It finally clicked within Ash.   
"The Rainbow Bird!" He cried suddenly. "I remember! I saw you on my first day, you flew over the rainbow..."   
"Yes, that is true. I have been watching over you since birth, Ash. I have been with you your whole life. But you probably want an explaination...   
"Ever since pokemon have ever been, there has always been one... a unique pokemon, different every time, watching over all. A Guardian, if you will. I am one such Guardian; Many others have come before me. The Guardian holds a bond with every pokemon on earth, their attitude connected to the Guardian's. A strong-willed Guardian will increase the power of all pokemon for his time; a sympathetic one will increase the compassion of all pokemon, and so on.   
"But as each Guardian grows old, they must select a new one. Pokemon alone cannot become a true Guardian. Nor can a human. But a true human and his pokemon, one which share a special bond, may become the guardian together.   
"So it was with me. I was once human; but then, so was I once pokemon. It was a Fearow, the first pokemon I ever caught as a trainer, which I trained to perfection and became bonded like very few have ever bonded." He stopped and sighed happily, apparently lost in memory lane... Ash realised he could see the resemblance to the Fearow... "The previous Guardian was half Vaporeon; She called herself Suikun, a huge water wolf, far taller than you, me or even the other birds. Many others, far too many to name, came before us. But now I lay the burden upon you, Ash. You have the bond, you have the power, will you and your Pikachu accept and become the next?"   
Ash was, quite simply, shocked speechless. Becoming a pokemon master, his life's dream, that had been fantastic. But now he was being asked to become part pokemon, the guardian of the earth...   
He managed to squeak out a "yes..."   
"Then hold your Pikachu. The three birds - Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres - they will guide you, as will I while I stay here, like Suikun did me. Be kind, Ash. Now be ready, this will not be pleasant... but it will be worth it."   
Ash closed his eyes, holding his Pikachu in front of him, and suddenly felt the power wash over him. He felt like he was falling in a huge dark abyss, and Pikachu was no longer in his hands... his body was shuddering, convulsing wildly, he had no control...   
And that was before the electricity started.   
Houou looked at him, thrashing around on the floor, in incredible pain, electricity sparking off and hitting the walls all over, deflecting from an invisible barrier around Houou. This wasn't right... this wasn't what had happened to him when he'd recieved the power... but then, he'd felt the endless plains of wind, buffeted through the air as his body had changed... His pokemon was a flyer, maybe this was how it worked for electric types?   
And the body began to change, slowly taking more shape of the Pikachu, but going further... Shining a bright white, it changed... Houou had to look away as the light grew stronger; there was no guessing what form the hybrid would take.   
But hen Houou felt the waves of power radiating back, and hitting him, sucking the energy from his body. Now he knew something had gone wrong... and he had a psychic image of a tall, early-teenage boy with spiked brown hair look around, confused, suddenly getting a great sense of... loss?   
It was then that he knew. He'd made the wrong choice. Gary was the destined Guardian. But it was too late... 

Ash hadn't been strong enough to control the power, and it had broken him. The mind of Pikachu, more resistant to mental trauma as pokemon generally are, managed to survive relatively unharmed, but as the minds became one, both became warped. This Guardian would not sit around and watch over calmly.   
Articuno, hovering outside the cave, flew inside the moment it felt something had gone wrong. Moltres and Zapdos, who were in the middle of an interesting conversation with Tracey, suddenly halted in mid-flight and -talk and dropped their passengers off as soon as they could, giving apologies before flying back to the cave, top speed.   
It was too late.   
Articuno came up and saw the end of the change, just as the light began to fade, and Houou's body fell to the floor, exhasted. Groaning inwardly, he realised the awful truth - it had been the wrong choice. He immediately flew back to halt the other two, knowing there was nothing more he could do to save his last master... but stop the new...   
And then Ash's changed body slowly picked itself up, and laughed at the sight of the half-dead bird in front of it, the shining rainbow feathers dulled, and began his rulership of the world... 

~-~-~-~

Houou somehow pulled up enough power to stand up and look out the window of his cell. The window... it was just a plain insult, little more than strengthened glass, the freedom of the world so close, knowing that what was previously the most powerful pokemon on earth was too weak to break such a barrier... And even if he could, he wouldn't be able to gather enough strength to fly before he hit the ground far below.   
But 'the freedom of the world' was not readily available anymore...   
The world had changed quickly. The first change had been the pokeballs - the Pikachu within the hybrid still held a morbid fear of the things, and as soon as Ash had gathered enough power to affect the minds of pokemon, every pokemon of every trainer shook in their balls, before bursting out and destroying the devices.   
And the stubborn wish of Ash to become a pokemon master, hold all pokemon under his metaphorical wing, was interpreted too... The pokemon left. Simply abandoned their trainers as if called away. Those trainers which mistreated and beat their pokemon were first hit back, their pokemon ganging up and leaving them for dead. Those who bonded and were friendly with their pokemon were simply left behind as the pokemon tirelessly ran off. It is not sure which group suffered the greater blow, but the general result was that every pokemon, trained or wild, young or old, weak or strong, gathered to Ash's banner.   
And Ash's banner was soon flying on top of a tall fortress, built without question or complaint by the pokemon under his rule. And there was nothing anyone could do about it - how could anyone fight off an army composed of every single pokemon on earth, not to mention Ash himself, if they had no pokemon of their own to use to challenge them?   
Not every pokemon... Houou still lived free, but he'd transferred most of his power to Ash and, while in this room, was powerless to even use the most minor of attacks, let alone stop Ash.   
The three birds - Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres... they were immortal, unaffected by Ash. But they would not be able to stop the entire army, and they wouldn't wish to - they loved pokemon. Ash would probably have them placed in the same predicament he was in right now...   
Wait, there was one more... but his thoughts were blurred... couldn't...   
"Hiyaaaaaaaa!" A long shreik came from outside, and a spiky yellow form flew into view, slamming it's beak into the glass, shattering it into thousands of fragments. Houou looked up, alarmed.   
"Don't... come in... power drain..."   
"We understand, master." Moltres said, flying into view from above. Articuno, flapping wildly, unleashed an Ice Beam at the bottom of the window, creating a small ledge for them to perch on.   
"We don't have much time before Ash's troops arrive, master, so we'll be brief." Articuno said. "This has happened once before, over a thousand years ago, the gift was given to the wrong person. A time of evil and trouble, the pokemon attacking their own trainers, just like you can see now."   
"But the previous Guardian countermanded his mistake by giving the powers of pokemon to a group of humans, and they defeated the evil master..."   
"There are still colonies of the 'elementals' as they call themselves living in out-of-the-way areas, shunned by many humans as freaks."   
"You do not have contact with humans, so you can not do the same again. The powers of the humans have become diluted over the years, and they will not be able to defeat Ash."   
"But the next master came up with an idea, should this ever happen again."   
"As you know, the being of every Guardian before you is contained within you, thier spirits, in effect..."   
Houou had enough energy to look suprised, and this in turn suprised the three legend-birds.   
"You didn't know that?"   
"I thought they all-"   
An alarmed cry came from below. The birds immediately got back to business.   
"They've spotted us... we should leave, we'll explain the rest on the way."   
"No... too slow... would catch us, no hope..." Houou protested weakly. "Continue..."   
"Alright." Articuno said, taking a deep breath. "The spirits inside can be released in a sort of physical form, which can be utilized by humans, absorbing the essence of the Guardian, in effect. They would become like super-powered pokemon, be able to defeat Ash."   
"Although it's never been tried." Moltres said, always the pessimist.   
"It's the legend-birds!" A pokemon cried from below. "They're trying to get Houou!" Speech... that was another thing... the pokemon had been taught basic english, most quite crude communicators but some - generals and such - were as good as any human.   
"Shush! Now... quickly, come and we'll take you to safety..." Articuno was almost pleading, not wanting this beautiful bird killed by Ash's armies...   
But Houou slowly shook his head. "No, I think not..." He said. "Protect the window..."   
Articuno nodded sadly, a crystal tear falling from one eye... and all three pushed off in a fluttering of wings.   
And he started concentrating, even in the power-drained room the energy being released was tangible. The awakened spirits of the long-dead Guardians fed Houou in anticipation of being released once more... and soon, objects started materialising in front of Houou. A Pinsir burst into the room, but had forgotten the energy-drain field and fell to the floor with a decending shriek. The objects solidified into oval-shaped... medallions, almost... gold-edged and backed, with a large crystal set in the center with a dramatic image of the being held within etched upon it, colour indicating the element of the pokemon. One by one they flew out over the world, seemingly randomly. They kept forming... but now the pokemon armies were utilizing their own flyers, and the three birds were hard pressed to keep them off long enough.   
And, just when their backs were turned, a Scyther turned off the field and entered the room. Moltres turned, and screamed a warning, but it was too late...   
The Scyther slashed hard, hitting the Rainbow Phoenix a fatal blow to the body. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the three birds turned from their battles to see their master gasp, choke, and slowly... ever so slowly collapse...   
Time resumed it's course as Fire Blast, Blizzard and Thunder attacks hit the Scyther simultaneously, tearing it to shreds. All three flew in, Zapdos and Moltres guarding as Articuno, the leader of the three, leant down by their master's side.   
"Master..." He said, and choked on his tears quietly.   
"Do not worry... escape..." Houou managed to say, and his head fell down once again, eyes closing, and the body faded slowly, dematerializing into nothingness...   
No, not nothingness... One last medallion formed where his body had lain, spinning gently, the gem's colour a swirling rainbow, shifting as it spun.   
And Articuno _felt_ more than heard Houou echo the last word... _Escape... escape... escape... ESCAPE!_   
Shocked out of his reverie as the rainbow medallion shot out with that last shout, Articuno jumped up and out, throwing himself out into the sky, followed by the other two, as hordes of pokemon led by Ash himself broke through the wall.   
"They won't escape me..." Ash whispered to himself, laughing softly. 

And so, with the death of the Rainbow Phoenix Houou, a legend began... the quest to stop Ash, and release his hold over the pokemon of the world... 


	3. Guardians Awaken - Chapter 1

Untitled 2 "Quick, we need bandages, potion-"   
"We're all out, someone needs to go down to the mart-"   
"I've got it... Oh no, another load..."   
"We're completely full!"   
"Stat!"   
"Quickly, we're losing him..."   
The pokemon centers worldwide were full to bursting point, bustling Nurse Joys and volunteers running every whichway.   
But not with pokemon.   
Almost every trainer had been damaged by the loss of pokemon, if not a physical wreck then an emotional one. Many Nurse Joys were themselves crying softly over the loss of their Chanseys as they rushed around, trying to comfort those who were in shock over the desertion of their pokemon and trying to heal those who had been mutilated. Many lives had been lost already, either through injury or broken heart, and more unfortunates were being carted in every minute. There just weren't enough people to take care of them all.   
And of course, it didn't help the Joys' attitude when they figured out that those who they were trying to heal the bodies of were the ones who mistreated their pokemon...   
But that wasn't the worst of it. Nobody had actually realised just how much the structure of the cities of the world depended on the pokemon... Nobody had noticed it until it was gone. _Power..._ The majority of the power stations of the world were home to hundreds of electric pokemon, rarely even needing a human there except for maintenance, kept up their output through the constant energy aura put out by the pokemon inside. _Security... _Most large shops or buildings had no alarm systems, just a Growlithe or two or maybe a fighting pokemon on premisis keeping guard, and burglary had added more problems to those already there... _Transport... _Few cars existed in the pokemon world, most letters and packages were sent by Pidgeot transport by those who couldn't afford teleportation, and the loss of such pokemon had led to some places being completely cut off...   
And nobody, not even the nurses, had realised just how much they needed those Chanseys...   
Nobody had ever expected something like this to happen before. Pokemon simply running away or attacking their trainers. And so nobody had set up secondary measures, a backup system, and now they were paying for it... 

Sitting in the middle of one such pokemon center was a black-haired teenage girl. Pretty much everyone else was either bustling around or sulking... but she just sat there silently, ignoring the bustle and noise around her, staring into nothingness, tears brimming but never falling, lost in the past...   
_Why... what have I done, to make them run away?_   
She blamed herself, although for what it wasn't sure. A mind in pain can do strange things to memories... Images of herself, playing with her pokemon, happy memories... Swimming with Squirtle, her first pokemon; Running around in the field with her Eevee; Training her Pidgey by throwing apples in the air and having it spear them or slice them; Playing hide and seek with her Nidorina...   
And one by one, they disappeared. Squirtle dove and never surfaced, Eevee simply speeding away far faster than she could chase, Pidgey grabbing an apple in it's mouth, then ignoring her call to come back and simply flying out of sight, Nidorina finding her, tackling her down playfully, then getting off... and by the time she'd gotten up, Nidorina was nowhere in sight...   
And then there was the times as they evolved... She watched as the white glow faded, and a new pokemon was revealed... and then it would blow an attack in her face, chuckle mockingly, and run off...   
A single tear fell, and traced it's way down her cheek, but she didn't notice...   
_Why... why... WHY?!_   
_ What have I done to deserve this?!_   
"Are you alright, Jessica?" Said a kind voice by her ear, and a hand rested lightly on her shoulder. She didn't register either, or pretended not to.   
"Jessica?" She felt whoever it was shake her, and she moved out of her nightmare world. She looked up into the concerned face of Nurse Joy, and despite her sorrow couldn't help but force a smile. She was good friends with all the Joys she'd met, she helping them out whenever possible and they giving her good advice and occasional presents like potions, revives and the like, and sometimes even the odd maltreated pokemon...   
_ Pokemon... everything came back to them... Damn..._   
"Are you okay? You're being quite quiet..."   
"Don't worry, nurse, I'll be fine... there are others more in need of help than me..."   
"No. Tell me what you're thinking about." She said, sitting down next to Jessica.   
"I... I was just wondering... what did I do?"   
"What did you do?"   
"To make them run away? I must have done something, treated them wrong, I don't know... maybe it was the pokeballs..."   
"Oh... Jess..." Joy hugged her. "It wasn't you! Noone treated their pokemon with more care and respect... Everyone's lost their pokemon, not just you. Everyone is feeling horrible. But it wasn't something you, or me, or any one of these trainers did. It's the pokemon, not the trainers. No, I'm not trying to blame your pokemon now, but all we can do is hope that someday they'll come back to us... and until then, find out just where they've gone..."   
"Everybody! Be quiet! We've..." A voice could be faintly heard shouting over the bustling and yelling that was the center, but it was quickly drowned out. Whoever it was paused a moment, then screamed over them all, "SHUT UP!!!"   
Surprisingly, everyone did. Some of the nurses continued to tend to their charges, whispering lowly, but over the room there was an expectant silence.   
"We think we've found out where the pokemon have gone!" He said, with a grim look on his face. "And it doesn't look good..." He showed a picture taken from the town's observatory...   
A huge fortress, sheer stone walls, a vortex-like storm swirling oppressively above throwing lightning bolts randomly down around it. And here and there, climbing around the walls, flying nearby, were many dots of brown and a couple of other colours.   
"Are they..."   
He held up more images, zoomed in from the first. They were indeed pokemon, flying pokemon of every shape and element...   
"Then..."   
"Whatever the pokemon are doing there..." The guy said slowly, getting ready to give the news that would drive them even further into despair, "They don't look like they're eager to come back any time soon..."   
People lept up as cries of dismay and disbelief rent the air. Nurse Joy left Jessica's side, trying to calm the masses. Like before, Jess simply sat, her mind encompassing this new information slowly, tears welling further and further before finally running freely down her cheeks...   
Standing up, still crying silently, she pushed through the enraged mob to the door, and wandered down the near-deserted street. She walked slowly, unseeing, blinded more from her complete absorbtion into the good memories gone bad than from the tears filling her eyes, but it didn't stop her from tripping on a curb and falling face-first onto the grass...   
"This is just getting better and better..." She muttered, crying harder, pulled out of her dream sequence by the pain. She stayed there for some time, lying on the grass, eyes closed, crying softly, losing track of time...   
In a world without pokemon... that was really all there was to do...   
Finally, she decided she might as well move on, and opened her eyes, pushing herself up... then stopped.   
Lying on the grass in front of her was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.   
It was a pendant of some sort, oval-shaped, about two inches long, maybe one and a half wide; with gold lining around the edges in extremely intricate patterns, weaving and twisting, until you couldn't tell where any of them started or finished...   
And in the center, an incredible sapphire, a deep royal blue, perfectly carved into a smooth dome without an edge anywhere (If it _had_ been carved) reflecting the light in all sorts of strange ways... In fact, it almost seemed to glow...   
Slowly, almost reverently, she reached down and touched it. She gasped and pulled away; it was freezing cold.   
But it was calling her, too beautiful to be ignored. She reached down again, and touched it, gasped again... but for a different reason...   
It was warm to the touch...   
She slowly picked it up and stood up, examining closely. Now that she looked a little closer she could see something on the crystal, what appeared to be a series of scratches, but if she ran her finger over it it was completely smooth, not even a dent. She examined it from various different angles, trying to see something within the marks...   
And then it became clear suddenly... what appeared to be a wolf, the blue colour of the gem making it remind her slightly of a Vaporeon, but apart from the basic shape and colour it bore no resemblance to the Eevee evolution. It looked strong and powerful, and she could almost see it move, it was that alive...   
"Jessica, how are you?" Said an insinuating voice from behind her. She jumped slightly, tightening her fist around the sapphire pendant and whirling around. It was Randall, one of the locals, who wore a large smile on his face. This took a moment to register - Randall was one of those who hated pokemon and everything they represented. He was obviously delighted at this disappearance. Jess wouldn't trust him as far as she could throw him. She hid the crystal pendant behind her back.   
"Randall, you certainly look perky."   
"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" The very words, along with the smug overtones, were like a slap in the face. "What's that you were looking at before?"   
"Nothing."   
"Let's have a look." He said, grabbing her arm forcefully, twisting it. She struggled, but he was much stronger. "Heh, haven't got your little poke-ey-mons to protect you now, have you?" He laughed cruelly.   
"Let go of me, you bastard!" She cried, letting fly a kick, but missing. He grinned, forced the arm around to the front and opened the hand, while she struggled, and removed the item.   
"Amazing... I'm sure I could sell this for a small fortune. Or maybe keep it for myself... Thank you, my young friend, for this gift. You don't mind, do you?"   
"Yes I do!"   
"Really? Sure it's no trouble?"   
"Give it back!"   
"Oh, I really don't think so... hey, what the... aaaah!"   
He suddenly dropped it, looking in shock at his hand. It seemed to be turning blue, frost rimming the edges... frozen solid, frostbite setting in within seconds.   
"What did you do to me, you little bitch?" He cried, staring at his frozen, useless hand. "I'll kill you!"   
He attacked with his frozen hand, hitting her hard... and watching as the brittle ice snapped, leaving him with a stump, broken just above the wrist. He stood there in shock for a moment, and Jess used that moment to duck down, grab the amulet and run like hell. 

~-~-~-~

Panting heavily, she slowed down, looking over her shoulder to check that Randall hadn't followed her for revenge. Once she determined that he hadn't, she bent double, resting hands on knees, trying to catch her breath.   
_That asshole..._ She thought,_ I'd never liked him - hell, noone had - but I'd never expected him to do something like that..._   
_ Just glad I didn't meet him in an alleyway at night..._   
Once she'd managed to get a normal breathing pace up, she looked around at where she'd ended up. What luck... she was just a couple of blocks from her house.   
Massaging her wrist where Randall had twisted it, she walked slowly, a little waveringly, back to her empty house, upstairs to her bed, fell down upon it in exhastion from a difficult day... All thoughts of the sapphire amulet forgotten, she again fell into the series of half-memories of her pokemon, sobbing silently, until she cried herself to sleep...   
But not even sleep can offer any protection from the mind... 

~-~-~-~

_ The view blurs... how does it do that, it's nothing but endless blackness... but slowly, basic colours begin to show themselves, growing sharper... _   
"Squirtle!" Cried the pokemon in front of her.   
"Oh, it's so cute! I love it! I want this one!"   
"Certainly! Here, I'll go get your pokedex and these pokeballs, and leave you two to become aquainted..." The shape, still a hazy grey blur, left the room.   
_I remember this... the start of my pokemon journey... so long ago..._   
_ Slowly, the view grows sharper and sharper, until the shapes are easy to make out from one another... But it's from a third-person perspective... did I really look like that back then? I can't believe they never took a photo of me when I got my first pokemon..._   
And she watched herself lean down, and play with her new pokemon, getting to know it... instant friends, they'd been, she'd always loved water pokemon... well, she'd loved almost all pokemon, really...   
_But then the scene suddenly changed... Blurring suddenly, the sounds dropping away as if they were travelling away from the laboratory at speed... And she found herself in a sea of green, too blurry to make out anything, but rapidly clearing..._   
"Squirtle, I choose you! Water Gun!"   
"Squirtle!" It cried, unleashing the pressurised water spray. The target became obvious as it recovered, shaking off the water.   
"Nidorina!" It cried, unleashing a Take Down. Squirtle pulled into it's shell, and was thrown back... skidding across the ground. It emerged, a little dizzy, but retaliated with a fearsome Skull bash. Nidorina was ready, however, and used a double kick straight to Squirtle's extended head, knocking it out no problem.   
"No... Return, Squirtle! Pidgey, get it! Quick attack!"   
Pidgey flew up, flapping frantically before diving... orange bands of energy swirling back, Pidgey blew so fast to be little more than a blur, slamming the Nidorina hard.   
"Nido..." It snarled, jumping up at the Pidgey's back, and stabbing Pidgey in the wing with one paw. Pidgey flipped and, in a rage, unleashed a powerful gust. Nidorina dug her claws in deep, struggling hard to not be dragged away... but failed, being thrown into a tree... struggling to get up, having no luck...   
"Great, Pidgey, now finish it off with a Wing Attack!"   
"Pidgeeeeoooowwww..." Pidgey flapped towards it's opponent... but suddenly dropped slightly, nearly hitting the ground, flapped hard to regain itself... and then just stopped, falling upon the ground, breathing with difficulty...   
"Pidgey, no!" She cried, horrified. She ran towards the bird pokemon, as fast as she could... in her bid for her pokemon's safety, not seeing the thick root half-buried within the autumn leaves...   
She tripped, flung her hands out wide, accidentally throwing Pidgey's pokeball forward as she _just_ managed to prevent herself from falling on top of her pokemon... the ball flew, bounced off a tree and, by an amazing coincidence, hit the Nidorina full-on... instant catch.   
But she barely paused to even pick up the pokeball as she raced off, Pidgey slung in her arms, to find the city and the pokemon centre..._ the view blurred once again, and the fleeting images of her sprinting and the forest flying by faded into a long stretch of green, which then changed again, to grey..._   
"Pidgey, no!" She cried, as Pidgey was cleanly picked out of the air by a flying rock - more like a small boulder - hurled by the Rock Master's Graveler. Luckily, Pidgey slipped away from the flying rock before it hit the stone wall, but the fall to the floor was still pretty tough on the tiny bird.   
She ran to the bird, scooping up the battered form. "Are you okay?" She whispered to it softly. It struggled in her arms, gave a look of hatred to the Graveler, then suddenly flew out, calling as loud as it could.   
"Piiiddgeeaaaww!" It cried, and it's body was suffused with a blinding white light. Jess watched in shock and pride as Pidgey grew larger and stronger...   
"Yeah! You can take it down now!" She cried. However, she was proved wrong when another well-aimed rock throw knocked her pokemon out. Her opponent chuckled mercilessly...   
"No! Pid-" She suddenly realised she didn't know the name of her new pokemon. "Ah, just return!"   
_Heh... that was embarrassing... I don't think I beat this guy on that try..._   
But she didn't have time to check this before the scene melted away again, to show another scene from her long, long pokemon journey... And another... And another... Winning badges, Evolving and catching pokemon, fighting off Team Rocket's attempts at theivery... faster and faster they flashed by, until it was a literal blur of memory, barely pausing on each scene before reaching the next...   
But then it stopped, so suddenly she almost felt the memory slideshow skidding to a halt... She was in a battle with a boy not much younger than herself, with short, spiked brown hair and an overconfident attitude...   
_Oh no... _She whispered to herself in her mind, realising what this scene was. _Please, not this..._   
But the memory remained, and she saw herself starting to battle the guy... By this time, her Nidorina had been evolved into a Nidoqueen, and that was battling his Sandslash...   
"Sandslash, Fury Swipes!"   
"Nidoqueen, Ice Beam!"   
The Sandslash was fast - the Icebeam didn't even come close to hitting. Several long scratches were cut in Nidoqueen's tough hide.   
"Tail Whip!" Jess cried. Sandshrew curled up into a spiny ball, but Nidoqueen still spun and delivered a powerful blow. Sandslash was catapulted into a tree, sticking in by it's spikes; Nidoqueen's tail had a few holes in it, but wasn't too badly damaged.   
"Now, Mega Punch!" Jess called, tasting victory. Nidoqueen powered up for a moment before unleashing the attack, tearing the ground pokemon from the tree - with wood still sticking to many of it's spines - and sliding it across the ground to stop near its trainer.   
"What do you think you're doing, laying down on the job?" He snarled. He marched up to the Sandslash, which was struggling to get up... and kicked it, not too lightly either. Jess gasped.   
"What do you think you're doing?" She cried. "You can't do that to your pokemon!"   
"Why not? They're my pokemon, I'll do what I like!"   
The Sandslash finally managed to get up. He nodded. "Now, take out that Nidoqueen."   
But Sandslash turned from Nidoqueen and simply stared at him. "What are you waiting for? Attack!"   
Bad choice of words.   
Sandslash dove at him, it's first attack leaving him with a ripped shirt and a nasty scratch across the stomach, as well as snapping his belt. His other pokeballs scattered across the ground, then started shaking and opening... Revealing a host of pokemon, ground, rock and fighting mostly, that layed into him without a thought. He cried out for help from Jess, but she couldn't really do anything much... and anyway, he probably deserved it, if he'd been treating pokemon like objects like he had before...   
Then, after the beating continued for a while, quite a bit of blood became apparent... there were several sickening snaps... she realised that the pokemon might actually mean to kill him. She pointed to him.   
"Could you fend them off, Nidoqueen?" She asked. Nidoqueen just stood there, looking off to her right. "Nidoqueen?"   
She suddenly felt her pokeballs begin to vibrate as well, until one by one they fell off her belt and popped open. Her pokemon looked around, before each taking one careful step (Or attack, for the smaller ones)... and crushing the pokeball like paper.   
"What do you think you're doing, guys? Pokeballs cost money, y'know..."   
But they weren't listening... and the other group seemed to be finished with the guy... and as one, they all simply started running or flying away!   
"Hey! Where are you going? Come back! Return!" She called after them, and then set off herself... but they were too fast for her. She soon slowed down, waiting for them to come back... but they never did.   
Then she started walking back to the guy who had been mauled by his pokemon...   
_Once again, the scene blurs... but this time it blurs to darkness... At first a night-time scene is expected, but there is nothing but a blank, empty void..._   
Suddenly, Jess found that she could move... She slowly sat, then stood up lethargically. Looking down, she found she could see herself clearly, despite lack of a light source...   
"Jessica..." A voice whispered behind her. She jumped, spun around and fell over in quick succession, then looked up at the being in front of her... Backing off in fear...   
"Don't be afraid, Jess. Don't you recognise me?" It chuckled softly. It was a wolf... deep royal blue, and so big... Jess guessed she might reach the top of it's forelegs... but lithe, thin. The head was long and canine, but had a long straight crest stretching back off it's head, several times longer than the head itself; trails of blueish-purple fur or hair streamed back in some unseen wind.   
"You're... the pokemon on that thing I found!"   
"That's right... That thing is, well... me. Technically, I'm dead... In that amulet is my spirit." It sounded a little embarrassed, for some reason. "Anyway, that thing with all the memories, sorry if it was painful for you, I was just checking out what my protectee is like with pokemon..."   
"Protectee?"   
"Well, apparently I'm supposed to look over you... and I couldn't have picked a better person. My name's Suikun. Anyway, it's nice to meet you and all, but I'm afraid I have some bad news for you..."   
"Is it about the pokemon?"   
"Yes... but I can't explain that to you now. It will take too long, and you're in danger..."   
"Where?" Jess asked, looking around. She seemed to have adjusted to the extremely strange situation rather quickly.   
"Not in here." Answered Suikun gently, calmly. "That guy, what was it? Randall? He's gone down to the pokemon centre and told everyone you're the cause of the pokemon leaving."   
"No... they wouldn't believe that, would they?"   
"People that desperate are willing to believe anything, Jess." Suikun leant down, rubbing her face against Jess's. "The fact that his hand froze and snapped off won't help either, of course. I really shouldn't have gone that far, but I've never seen anyone with more hate for pokemon in their hearts... he deserved it..."   
"Nurse Joy would never believe it, she'd-"   
"I'd love to convince you of the power of the mob, but there's an even bigger problem than that. Ash is beginning to attack-"   
"Ash? Who's that?"   
"As I said, I'll explain later. Pokemon _will_ return, but under Ash's command. They'll be stronger, faster than before, and this time they're against humans, pokeballs, the lot. They'll round you up, hold you prisoner... or kill you. And you can't afford to let that happen."   
"The pokemon... against us? My own pokemon?"   
"Yes, I know it's hard to understand, I'll explain later..."   
"Shouldn't we warn the others?"   
"If you try to warn them, they'll simply hold you prisoner until the pokemon get here and hold _them_ prisoner. And what's more, they'd take the amulet away. Look, Ash doesn't know about me and the others yet-"   
"Others?"   
"Yes, you'll have to find them too. The longer we can keep Ash in the dark, the more time we've got. But if Ash finds you now, then that's one less fighter and a whole lot less time we've got... Look, there's nothing you can do for the others, the best thing you can do is run and find the others, and defeat Ash."   
"So... I've got to leave my family... Nurse Joy..."   
"I know, logic sometimes hurts, but you've got to get out of here... I'm sorry..." Suikun said. Jess looked up, and saw a tear run down one side of Suikun's muzzle...   
"Alright, I understand... where should I go?"   
"Just try to make it away from the city, get into the forests if you can. But don't head west... that's where Ash's fortress is..."   
"Ash's fortress? Is that..."   
"Yes. Now go! Before the others get here..." Suikun blew lightly on Jess's face, and suddenly she was awake in her bed... she looked at the clock, she'd only been asleep for a couple hours, but felt completely refreshed. She got up, looked into the streets illuminated by the sunset sky, and saw a large crowd of figures several blocks off... headed by one figure, who looked a lot like Randall even from this distance...   
"Alright... I'll do it..." She said, holding the amulet close to her heart as she steeled herself... then ran quickly down the stairs, grabbed her pokemon gear _(Glad I never threw it out, might be worth keeping some of it, even if there are no pokemon...)_ and out the back door, jumping a fence and running a shortcut through various she and her friends had used many times before they'd all set off on pokemon journeys...   
_Her friends... how must they be now? Without pokemon, she hoped none of them had been beaten up... No, concentrate on the job at hand..._   
Without looking back, she ran through the city streets... ran and ran, endlessly, but somehow not getting tired...   
_Don't worry, I'll give you all the energy you need... _She heard in her mind. Suikun! _No, not that way! Wait, keep going, take this next street on the right..._   
She turned the corner and kept running... following Suikun's directions as she was guided through the town... until she took a wrong turn and hit a dead end...   
_Oh no... they're coming this way too..._ Jessica turned around and saw a couple of scouters at the end of the short court. They yelled, saying they'd found her...   
_Look, just keep running, don't worry..._ The calm, steady voice called in her head.   
"Are you kidding?" She hissed. "These people have a solid brick fence in their backyard, all around, every house. I'd never get through!"   
_Trust me... just run... _Jess shrugged and ran around the side gate of the house to the backyard, in which there was indeed a strong-looking brick wall, unclimbable for all intents and purposes...   
"See what I mean? There's no way I can get past that?" Jess pointed at the wall.   
_Right, Ice Beam!_ Suikun called. A beam of blue-white energy flew from Jess's fingers to hit the wall, which froze solid quickly, then simply collapsed into a pile of frozen masonry.   
"What? How did..."   
_Don't worry, that's for later. Now we run! _Jess agreed, and ran through. _Hang on, I've got another idea... turn around and point at the hole... both hands._   
"What..."   
_Watergun, Icebeam!_ The voice within her head cried. From one hand, a blast of water shot at the ground while the other shot another beam of energy which froze the water solid. She slowly moved her hands upwards, creating a wall of ice just as impenitrable as the brick wall had been. One of her chasers ran in, and saw her just finishing off the attacks, and gaped at her through the translucent wall of ice.   
"It's true!" He cried, and ran back through the gate. Suikun urged her to run, and run she did... until she finally found herself out of the town.   
_No, don't stop now... you need to get to those trees!_ Jess sighed, more exhausted mentally from trying to work it all out than physically, and ran on.   
When she reached the forest, all the energy seemed to abandon her and she collapsed.   
_Thank you, Jessica... You should be able to rest for a while here, they won't expect you to have left the city..._   
"Now..." Jess held the blue amulet in front of her. "I think I'm owed an explaination?"   
_Well, yes, but I don't think we should stay here too long... unless you want to watch your town being taken over... speak of the devil! Quick, get down..._   
Jess instinctively ducked. "What?"   
_Look a little to your right... now, up a bit... see that brown cloud?_   
"Yeah, sort of..."   
_Don't you have some binoculars in that bag?_   
She hastily got them out, with a bit of fumbling, and held them to her eyes. Thousands of them... Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Pidgeot, Spearow, Fearow... as well as a few of the half-flying types...   
"No..."   
_I'm afraid so. Look, you're probably safe here, but you should move on. May as well get going in our search for the others, right?_   
"Who are these 'others' you keep talking about?"   
_Ones like you... People who have received these amulets. You'll have to find them... you certainly don't stand a chance against Ash by yourself..._   
"Could you _please_ explain this to me? I'm still confused..." Jess said, repacking her binoculars and hoisting up her bag to leave.   
_Next time you sleep... it's easier to manipulate dreams than explain like this. Don't worry, they'll be searching for you too, and as long as Ash doesn't catch any of us you should be fine..._   
"And if he does catch one of us?"   
_Then you'd better be on the lookout for pokemon, hope you have a friend by then... and _really_ hope it isn't you he catches..._


	4. Guardians Awaken - Chapter 2

Untitled 3 _And slowly, the sensations... indeed, the senses themselves slowly faded away, being replaced with a sense of freedom, and yet entrapment... and then flying, flying through the air, somehow knowing where the destination lay, although not what the destination was, where it was, or indeed where I was... All there was to know was that the destination was there, and that's where I go..._   
_ And then the sensation of flying stops suddenly as the ground hits, or is hit... it _hurt!   
Jessica woke up with a shock, breathing heavily. _I'm sorry... It wasn't fun, I know... I was there, after all. You did want to know..._   
"At least I understand what's going on..." Jessica managed to whisper. Her heart was racing, adrenaline pumping... she'd just been treated to an explanatory dream sequence from Suikun's point of view, which had - until the amulets had been created - rested within Houou's point of view. It had been quite a ride.   
"So... how many others are there?"   
_Um... I don't actually know. We weren't exactly active inside Houou... I don't think anyone ever counted... And I know for sure that not all of us made it out..._   
"What do you mean?"   
_Houou was killed shortly afterwards... A Scyther slash. He lived only long enough to create his own amulet, which he infused with the powers of the remaining spirits..._   
"So... who holds that amulet?"   
_Only Houou knows that. And if he hasn't made it to his host yet, maybe not even him... I didn't know who it was going to be until you picked me up._   
"So where would I go, to find another amulet holder?" She asked, hoping this question might get an answer.   
_There's one nearby._   
"What? Where?"   
_To your left. A couple of miles or so. I don't know, it's quite inaccurate, but if you keep following my directions you should find him or her eventually._   
"Do you know who it is?"   
_Who who is? The person or the guardian?_   
"Either."   
_I don't know who the person is, but I think I might know who the guardian is... but we'll find out when we get there, won't we? Get moving!_   
"Alright, geez, no need to be pushy. I'm going!"   
She hastily packed up her belongings and set off. "I take it if I'm looking for them, they'll be looking for me too?"   
_Should be..._   
"Well, that makes my life a little easier." She said, walking through the forest. Quickly becoming bored - she'd usually keep at least one of her Pokémon out for conversation during travel - she decided to try to spark up a conversation with the amulet. "So... you were once human, then became a Pokémon? I would have loved to try that... I've always wondered what it would be like to be a Pokémon..."   
_Heh... You never know, girl. You might just get that wish..._   
"_What?!_"   
_ Yeah, I don't know what'll happen when the fighting gets heavy... you're technically part Pokémon now, because of me. You saw those attacks you did. Who knows, you might even evolve..._   
"I didn't do those attacks, you did!"   
_Wrong, sweetheart. I have some minor control over this body and, obviously, the elemental attacks are probably the most susceptible to my workings, especially when you don't know how to control them. If you can't control them, you can't resist my doing them. Which leads me to my next po-_   
"You're going to teach me how to use the attacks myself."   
_'sright..._   
"So, let's get to it..." She said, then listened for the next hour or so as Suikun explained it to her, putting in her own comments here and there. It would have looked strange, had anyone been watching.   
And someone was watching.   
A Mankey watched, in some confusion, as the girl wandered slowly down the forest trail, apparently talking to herself. It couldn't make out the words. But it almost fell out of the tree in shock as it watched her unleash a Water Gun.   
When she used Ice Beam, it did fall. Jess snapped her head towards the noise, and saw the long white tail.   
_A Pokémon... it saw you. Here's some target practice for you - you can't let that get away!_   
"Right. Ice Beam!" Mankey jumped up, the cold energy beam freezing the area it had been standing a moment ago. "Damn, that felt good. Water gun!" She yelled, watching the attack hit the Mankey, forcing it to slide along the now-muddy ground...   
_Bubblebeam!_ Suikun shouted, but nothing happened. _Hey, see, you're getting better... I don't have control over it, when you're concentrating on attacking... but use Bubblebeam anyway..._   
"Right! Bubblebeam!" The pressurized stream of explosive bubbles hit the Pokémon, obviously hurting it, but it kept running.   
_Not so loud... we don't want more Pokémon in the area... But get running!_   
"Got it!" Jessica started running, amazingly catching up with the Mankey fairly quickly.   
"Maaannkeeey!" It screamed, running as fast as it could. Jessica aimed an attack as she ran, and hissed it more quietly as she ran.   
"Water Gun!" She shot the attack. It came within an inch of hitting the Mankey, but it jumped up and started climbing a tree...   
_Oh no, just what we didn't need... it'll be even faster now..._   
Jess didn't reply, shooting an Ice Beam at the Mankey, but the dense foliage shielded it, and it paused for a moment to taunt her before bounding away!   
"Oh, you are _not_ getting away from me!" She hissed, shooting elemental attack after attack into the tree, but not hitting the Mankey.   
_No, aim for the trunks... if you can bring down the tree, you'll bring down the Mankey!_   
Jess pointed a finger at the trunks of the trees Mankey was jumping from and to, and watched with satisfaction as they froze, cracked and toppled. But Mankey had somehow managed to jump to the next tree in time...   
"Damn!" It dodged yet another Water Gun, and ran off...   
...Right into an outstretched foot!   
"Yah! Take that! And that, ya durty Mankey!" A white blur was pounding the Mankey in the treetop, and before long a stunning kick threw the creature down in front of Jessica's feet... Followed by it's attacker.   
"You... you're a..." She said, looking at it. The last thing she'd expected - a Meowth.   
"Yeah, ya wanna make som'tin' of it?" The Meowth snarled. Suikun snorted at it's poor attitude, and aimed a low-powered Ice Beam just beside it. Jessica stopped the attack.   
"It's a Pokémon... should I take it out?"   
"No, don't worry..." Said another voice from the shadows. She whipped around, and a young man with lavender-coloured hair, probably in his late teens or early twenties, dropped down from a treetop.   
"For some reason, Meowth wasn't affected like the other Pokémon. He's more human than Pokémon, really."   
"Who are you?"   
_I think he might be our amulet holder... _Suggested Suikun.   
"Now, this voice that seems to be following me around..." He suddenly cringed, then continued. "This voice by the name of Sati, seems to think you have one of these..."   
He held an amulet out, hung delicately on a long, crimson ribbon. It was mostly identical to Jessica's, except where she had a deep blue sapphire he had a shining whitish-transparent diamond, and although the scratched-in figure was unclear she thought it looked a little more feline than hers...   
_Ha! I knew it, it's Sati! Go on, show him your one..._ Jess felt her hand automatically digging into her pocket for the amulet, and she held it out. Something deep in her mind was shrieking about this guy... something familiar.   
"Hmm... what do you know, she was right!" He shrugged, and held out his hand. "I'm Ja-"   
"You're from Team Rocket!" She suddenly blurted out, figuring out what had been nagging at her mind the past few minutes - his white clothing with the blazing crimson 'R' on the front... But all the others she'd seen had been dressed in black. He looked mildly annoyed at her mention of this.   
"Yes... well, _was_ from Team Rocket. Think about it, there's not much use in being a Pokémon thief if there aren't any Pokémon or pokéballs."   
_Just because he's from a criminal group doesn't mean he can't help you... there's no telling what you might need in the future... takes all kinds._   
"Anyway, as I was about to say, my name is James. Previous out-of-luck Team Rocket employee, and now apparently protector of the world."   
"And... your Pokémon can talk?" Jess looked down at the Meowth, who was giving James a funny look.   
"Yeah, he's been around with our group for a while now... don't worry, it's a long story involving a certain female friend..." Meowth blushed, snarled and leapt at James' face to give him a hard scratching... but James ducked and moved underneath with grace you'd expect more from the cat Pokémon. "Anyway, you are?"   
"My name's Jess..." She said carefully. He certainly seemed in control...   
He looked a little suprised. "Another Jess, eh? Well... I guess I should take you to meet my partner... we left her behind a while back. Make sure nothing nasty has happened to her..."   
With an amazing leap, James grabbed a tree trunk and scrabbled up... Jess watched in amazement as he scrabbled up apparently without handholds, finding a sturdy branch and looking down on Jessica and the Meowth. "I'll be at the campsite, catch me up. You know where it is, Meowth." And he leapt off through the branches, the sound of his laughter tinkling down to them as they stood there.   
_Showoff..._ Suikun mumbled, apparently to herself.   
"Hi there." Meowth took a leap and landed on Jess's shoulder. "It's good to have some company around... Jessie's been sulking ever since... you know, the Pokémon ran off. She was heartbroken... And James ain't been much good either, he's been acting really weird since he found that diamond thing..."   
She resisted an urge to chuckle at the pokémon's strange accent. "What do you mean, acting strange?"   
"Get walking, that way." Meowth commanded, in the content tones of someone who knows a free ride when he sees one. But his tone soon flicked back to concern and worry... "James used to be whining, naive... He would normally have been as badly off as Jess when the Pokémon ran away. But he found that thing... and shrugged it off, like nothing had happened. And he's been acting so... posh, careless... it's just not like him..."   
_That'll be Sati... Bit of a pompous one. Very dignified, unless she has to fight. Persian genes... Tell the cat not to worry, his friend is fine._   
Jess relayed the message to the talking Meowth, who hissed at the word Persian. "Ah... Stupid things... Ruin everything for me..."   
She continued to talk with the pokemon until she finally reached the campsite. James was frying some eggs, but there was no sign of his partner, that he'd been speaking of.   
"Oh, hi, about time you got here. These'll be ready soon, just sit down and wait..."   
"Where's your friend?"   
"Jessie? She's over in the tent." He guestured to a tall green tent, half-unzipped.   
"Well... Meowth's told me about her... Not in a good mood..."   
"Well, I'm sure you were a pokemon trainer too before it happened. Were you estatic?"   
"You're right..." She was suddenly reminded of her pokemon again...   
"I reckon I know why I was chosen for this thing..." He held up the diamond amulet, hanging from the ribbon around his neck. "Has yours explained what happened? I mean, with Ash and all that? Hello?" She jumped out of her melancholy memory sequence again and ran back through what he'd said.   
"Yeah..."   
"I know Ash."   
That got her attention. "You know him? The guy who's apparently trying to take over the world?"   
_What do you mean, '_apparently_'? _Suikun asked, slightly miffed. _Don't you beleive me?_   
Before she could answer, James started talking again. "We were assigned to him, to try to steal his pokemon... I personally don't beleive he has it in him to be an evil overlord, but Sati insists it's true."   
_That's because he's not an evil overlord... He's just a little insane. He believes what he's doing is for the good of all pokemon, and technically he's right, but he's not taking humans into account..._   
James began to say something but suddenly turned around, hearing a noise from the tent. A girl, about his age, came out... She was in terrible condition.   
Long red hair flowed sideways from her head, but then drooped sadly down. Long red marks trailed down her face, suggesting that she'd been scratched; Her eyes were bloodshot and red-rimmed, her uniform - white rocket, but quite different from james - was ripped and torn. James suppressed a shudder.   
"She looks awful..." Meowth whispered to Jessica. "Back before... you wouldn't see Jess looking anything less than perfect. But not anymore... It's killing her, and it seems to be the only thing that bothers James recently..."   
"Jessie..." You could hear the pain in James' voice as he called to his partner. "This is Jessica. She's going to help us find the pokemon..."   
Jessie gave her a quick glance, but nothing more. She looked enquiringly at the frying pan of eggs.   
"They'll be ready soon. Go back to the tent and get cleaned up, I'll bring them to you..."   
Jessie shook her head gently. Meowth whispered to Jess again. "She hasn't spoken since it happened, either..."   
_Poor girl... I wish she didn't have to go through this... see, this is what we're fighting for._   
"I think these are ready..." James said, to break the uncomfortable silence. He shared out the eggs between everyone, and they all ate quietly for a while.   
Finishing his egg, Meowth put the plate on the ground, stretched... and suddenly froze.   
"Hmm... wht's 'p M'th?" James asked through a mouthful of egg, but Meowth waved him to silence. Everyone stopped eating, suddenly listening intently...   
_It's a Spearow! Don't make any sudden moves... just slowly look up, just a smidgen left..._ Suikun advised. Her eyes flicked to it immediately, seeing the patch of brown among the leaves, then to James sitting across from her. He nodded, almost imperceptively.   
_Just a water gun, to get it in the air. James should be able to take care of it then..._   
She stared directly at the bird, and took a deep breath... and blew as hard as she could. A stream of water gushed from her mouth, knocking aside everything until it hit the bird pokemon. It squawked loudly, taking flight, and James had already jumped up and turned to face it. He flung out a hand, and what appeared to be an etheral dagger flew out and slashed through the bird's tiny wing.   
_Good aim..._ Suikun commented. Jess just looked to James. "What was that?"   
_Sati's power._ Suikun answered for her._ She's a normal type, which means she didn't have much in the way of elemental attacks. She developed a way of creating physical objects, sort of psychic-ghost maybe but just as solid as the real thing, though it might not look it. _   
"Speeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaarrrr!" Cried the injured bird. Meowth ran off in the general direction, there was another loud but somewhat shorter squawk... and he came back holding the corpse.   
"Hmm... maybe we might have more of a meal after all." James said thoughtfully. Jessica was horrified.   
"You're going to... _eat it?_"   
"Girl, when you're outlawed from most cities and eating venues you learn to live off the wild. There's nothing wrong with eating pokemon, other pokemon do it all the time."   
_Listen to them, Jess. Think about it, soon most of the cities will be all but off-limits to humans. Get it into your head, pokemon are the enemy now!_   
"Yeah... I guess..."   
"Hmm?" James looked at her curiously, then realised she was talking with her amulet. "Well, this bit is a little messy... If you don't want to see it, you should take a little walk."   
"I'll go too." Meowth said hurriedly. Jessie snorted and went back to her tent as the two left, and James got on with preparing the bird... 


	5. Guardians Awaken - Chapter 3

Untitled 4 The four of them ate their Spearow dinner in silence as the light levels fell, nothing more needing to be said between them. Jess was still uncomfortable with the notion of eating pokémon, but she was quite hungry and the Spearow, to her suprise, actually tasted quite nice.   
Once they had finished, they lay down to sleep. Meowth suggested a sentry.   
"We know pokémon are roaming the forests, right?" He said, the know-it-all tone heavy in his accented voice. "We don't want to all be caught asleep."   
Jessie was already asleep in the tent - there'd be no way she'd be a sentry. James and Jess looked at each other, then said as one, "Nice of you to volunteer, Meowth!"   
Meowth just stood there dumbfounded as they unpacked their sleeping bags, then erupted into a fury. "You can't do that to me! What abo-"   
"Watch us!" Jess smiled at him, then plopped down and started snoring.   
With a snarl, Meowth leapt at them to wake them up cat-style. James simply smiled and, without opening his eyes, pointed at Meowth and made a circular motion in the air with his finger... and Meowth smacked into an invisible shield.   
"Good night Meowth. Wake one of us up when it's our turn." James said, and then quickly fell asleep too. Meowth grumbled, but sat down for the watch.   


_~-~-~-~_

Once again, Jess found herself in the 'dream void'... the endless swirling blackness that she had fallen into every time she slept since she found the amulet. A quick glance by her side showed the tall, stately figure of Suikun standing next to her.   
"So what have you got for us tonight?" She asked the water wolf.   
"Me? Nothing." It seemed sort of disturbing, hearing Suikun talk after so long listening to the psychic voice in her head... "However, we might have some visitors... Ah, here they are now."   
Seemingly walking out of the blackness, James appeared. Behind him was another pokémon, just as impressive as Suikun... a shining pure white coat, very leonine features... a long mane of white hair flowing back and around the shoulders, or whatever the equivalent for four-legged pokemon was. The face was dangerous-looking, with a long fang stretching down each side of the mouth... but also dignified, held with a clean air of power. The legs were thick and muscled, retractable claws on the large paws. It was only slightly smaller than Suikun, but still looked like quite a fighter.   
"Jessica, I'd like you to meet Sati." Suikun guestured to the huge pokemon. "She and I go way back."   
"Well, it's nice to see you again, after all this time..." Sati said leisurely, her very voice radiating the levels of relaxation and contentment only available to felines. "Leave the humans to themselves, maybe?"   
"Good idea. We're just going to catch up, Jess, James... it has been a matter of centuries since we last met." She smiled.   
"So what are we gonna do?"   
"It's your dream world. Technically you've got free rein to do whatever you want. Train, look through your old memories, whatever you want. Seeya!" And the two guardians vanished.   
"Hmm... what do you say we do a little training, James?"   
"What?" Fear showed on his face. "Training?"   
"Yeah, we've got these powers..." She held up her hands, and they were surrounded by a cold blue aura. "May as well try using them."   
"Uh... okay..." James seemed to have gone under a total personality switch since they were awake. Jess guessed it was Sati's influence.   
"Get ready!" She cried, charging a full-power water gun and unleashing it. James cringed, closed his eyes and held out his hands to try to block some of it, waited a second, then cried,   
"Team Rocket's bla... huh?" He opened his eyes and watched the attack dispersing off a barrier in front of him. He straightened himself.   
"Sorry, force of habit. Now, let's see... Rock Throw!"   
He held his hand back, and as she watched fascinated as a shape shimmered and materialised within it to show a smooth, medium-sized rock. He flung it at her, and she was too mesmerised by watching the appearance of the object to dodge. It hit her in the leg, and she fell over.   
"Ooh, that hurt." She moaned. James was instantly above her, worried. "Are you okay?"   
She smirked, and unleashed another Water Gun point blank. He was thrown back, and landed hard.   
"If I was an enemy pokemon you'd probably be dead right now. I'm beginning to see why Sati started influencing your mind..."   
James didn't say anything, but you could tell by the way he blushed he was embarrassed.   
"Ah, you do whatever you want. I'll do some training by myself." She held out her hand, and a pokeball materialised. "Hmm... not bad."   
"What are you going to do?"   
"Train against pokemon, of course. Don't you understand how this place works? We can basically think 'I want to have this' or 'I want to see this' and it'll happen." She threw the pokeball, and a Flareon emerged, ready in fighting pose.   
"Hmm... let's see, could use a proper arena, methinks..." and all of a sudden, the blackness retreated into a huge stadium. She stood on one side, the Flareon crouched to pounce on the other.   
And the battling ensued... 

~-~-~-~

Panting heavily, Jess conjured up a towel to wipe the sweat from her face. It hadn't been as good as she'd expected - the pokemon she fought had no real free will, and she actually had to order them to attack or they'd just sit there and do nothing, not even to defend themselves.   
"That's enough for now." She said to herself, and watched the stadium fade. James could be seen off in the distance, but she couldn't tell what he was doing...   
She slowly snuck up on him, and found him crouched in a ball, crying softly, as a circular window into memory showed. She could see him talking to Jessie... The old Jessie, before the pokemon had run away. Meowth had been right, she seemed to strive for perfect looks, although her personality left something to be desired.   
Image after image showed up, reminding Jess of the set of memories Suikun had pulled up... Jess and himself formulating plans with Meowth... trying out various scams... Caring for their pokemon, A Weezing for James and an Arbok for Jessie, the memories sometimes stretching back to before they were evolved...   
Jess hadn't realised just how much such criminals - whose job it was to seperate others from their pokemon - could care for their own pokemon...   
But quite often, the images would show a young boy, much younger than either Jessie or James, with a green backpack and spiky black hair sticking out from under a red and white pokemon leage cap. He was accompanied sometimes by an older dark boy with squinting eyes, sometimes with a tall boy with a red bandanna, but almost always by a red-haired pony-tailed girl...   
She watched silently as James sobbed... he wasn't even watching the fleeting memories anymore, but she was. The boy's Pikachu was his main weapon, and the one they seemed anxious to steal all the time, but it was what most often defeated them... one good thundershock laid them out for the birds or sent them flying... Jess wondered how they'd managed to survive all the electric attacks and long falls.   
"So... that's Ash, is it?"   
James jumped up and spun around, tears still flowing freely. The memory window winked out. "How long have you been watching?"   
"It doesn't matter."   
"Jessie... she means the world to me... she's the only real friend I've got, now that the pokemon have gone..."   
"I understand..." Jess said. James said nothing, just curled up again and rocked slowly.   
Suddenly, Suikun and Sati came walking out of the blackness.   
"Hmm... you two certainly seem to be enjoying yourselves." Suikun noted dryly, seeing James crying in the foetal position.   
"You didn't hit my human too hard, did you?" Sati said, but with a touch of humour evident in her voice. Jess shook her head sternly at the guardians, pointing at James and mouthing 'bad memories.'   
"Oh..." Suikun lowered her head, good mood shot down slightly. She was about to say something when a voice called down from... somewhere.   
"Guys? Wake up!" It echoed around the empty dream landscape, and James looked up.   
"That's Meowth..."   
"Guys?!"   
"Something's wrong... you'd better wake up." Sati said quietly.   
"How do we..." Jess and James suddenly found the Guardians further away. Soon they disappeared, and then they started moving away from each other, until they were all alone travelling towards a point of light in the distance at incredible speed, without any indication of movement...   
"Wake up!"   
Both of them suddenly sat bold upright, to see Meowth standing between them, looking nervously at the woods ahead. They followed his gaze.   
"Oooh, shit." Jess said simply. Five pokemon stood there, watching them - A Sandshrew, a Venonat, a Rattata, a Bellsprout and an Ekans.   
"I think... this is the time to fight."   
"Right... Meowth, take your pick." James said, slowly getting out of his sleeping bag   
"I've got the Rattata." Meowth said.   
"I'll take the Sandshrew and... the Ekans." Jess suggested. "The other two might have attacks strong to water."   
Suddenly, the Ekans hissed loudly, and all five of them leapt into battle.   
Rattata used a flying tackle, but was quickly intercepted by Meowth's Fury Swipes. Jess's Water Gun made short work of the Sandshrew, and James laid a massive kick into Venonat's furry body, tumbling it end over end into a tree, unconscious.   
The other pokemon, however, would not be so easily disposed of.   
Bellsprout's low mass meant that James's blunt physical attacks did little, and Ekans was extremely fast, dodging Water Gun after Ice Beam without tiring. Rattata and Meowth were pretty evenly matched, however.   
Bellsprout unleashed a Vine Whip, which was blocked by a quick shield. Ekans was using all it's energy just to avoid the elemental attacks. But soon it got an opening, and leapt.   
"Whoa!" Jess yelled, as she barely dodged the long, venom-dripping fangs. Ekans flew back, and landed on the ground again, near the tent.   
Jessie chose that unfortunate moment to check out what all the commotion was about.   
Ekans hissed in glee and dived at this new, weak-looking target. Jessie cried out in suprise and pain as the poisonous fangs sank into her leg. James and Meowth immediately turned to look.   
"Jessie, no!" James cried. A transperent blade appeared in his hand and he cleaved the Bellsprout in two, then ran over to his friend's side. Meowth quickly dispatched his Rattata.   
Jessie sank to the ground slowly. The poison was fast-acting, her face was turning a very unhealthy greenish-purple. With a quick grab, Jess scooped up the gloating snake, holding it's neck so it couldn't bite.   
"Now for that, you'll die." She said, slowly strangling it.   
"Tshtshtsh..." It sniggered. "Sssso I diessss..."   
"Wait, you can talk?"   
"Who caresssss?" It hissed smugly. "I diessss now... Sssshe dies now... Yousss die ssssoon."   
"What?"   
"Assssh knowssss... You diessss..."   
Jess had had enough. Almost without thinking about it she channeled cold through her hands, and within seconds the Ekans was a snake-shaped iceblock. Her rage was such that it snapped and crumbled beneath her grip.   
"Jessica! Do you have any antidotes?" Called James. She didn't answer for a moment, fuming and holding some of the crumbled ice beneath her fingers.   
"JESSICA!" James screamed desperately. She snapped out of it and rushed over.   
"Err... antidotes, antidotes..." She fumbled through her belongings... Nothing. "No..." She answered weakly.   
"Meowth?"   
"No... we never carried antidotes. Remember? All of our pokemon were poison. There was no point."   
"James..." Jessie said, slowly and painfully. James immediately turned to her.   
"Yes Jessie?"   
"No... Antidote. Better... no point living... without Arbok... Likitung..."   
"No! Jessie... we need you!" James pleaded.   
"If pokemon... come back, someday... take care of them."   
"Don't..." James started, but she fell limp. "No, Jessie! You can't leave me to this!"   
_Sati's probably not happy in there... not one for the emotional outbursts..._   
"This is _not_ time for your snide comments, Suikun."   
_Sorry, I've seen a lot of death in my life... I've lost loved ones. Hell, I've died myself for god's sakes. It doesn't register much anymore..._   
James just sat there, hugging the limp body of Jessie, crying silently and rocking slowly. "I can't believe... not you too, Jessie..."   
Meowth tried to comfort his friend, but James couldn't feel, see, think of anything but Jessie. His only human friend.. 


	6. Guardians Awaken - Chapter 4

Untitled 5 _Somewhere else..._

"Kreeeyaaa! Drill peck!" Zapdos called, instantly knocking out a Pinsir.   
"Kaayuuu! Blizzard!" A row of ground pokémon were annihilated by Articuno's whirlwind of ice.   
"Treee-is! Wing blade!" Moltres's own move, he charged forward and sliced through pokémon as if they weren't there, leaving them burning and out of the fight.   
"A commendable effort, my little birdies, but I don't think you can keep that up forever."   
Ash was watching from the shadows of the cave as the three immortal pokémon fought off his seemingly endless hordes of pokémon. They were holding their ground, but Ash's prediction was right - they were tiring.   
A beedrill got in a Twin Needle on Moltres, but in the process set itself on fire. Moltres barely noticed, and proceeded to rain fire down on the other, non-flying types.   
"Brothers, now!" Articuno called. "Elemental Vortex!"   
The three came together and started spinning in a circle, faster and faster until they were little more than a blur of yellow, red and blue. Suddenly the circle filled in, and started crackling with the three elements of the birds, before forming a huge column of solid elemental energy. Any pokémon that came near was sucked in and vaporized.   
"Shit!" Ash cursed. "I guess I'll have to do this myself... Matrix Stasis!"   
Suddenly the air crackled with electricity, and every pokémon in the huge cave found themselves unable to move. Without the movement of the trio to assist it, the elemental vortex simply dissipated. Ash floated on the tangible electric current in the air up to where the birds hung motionless.   
"See? You can't compare to me."   
Zapdos struggled for a moment, then unleashed an incredible thunder attack - draining the very current that held them in place to charge the blast. The other two birds were damaged slightly, but Ash got the full force and was knocked back against the wall of the cave. All three birds, suddenly released from the matrix, fell to the ground - along with all the other pokémon that had been flying.   
Ash slid from the wall to the ground. He lay there a moment before getting up, pausing dramatically before looking up with pure fiery hatred in his eyes.   
"That does it! Energy drain!" His hands flew out and long, dark lightning bolts extended, hitting all three of the birds and several unfortunate pokémon nearby. The pokémon were reduced to empty husks and then nothing but dust within seconds as the very energy and physical components that held them together were simply leeched away; the birds suffered a less drastic but much more painful treatment, eventually left unconscious on the floor of the cave. Ash, still enraged, ordered a few of the remaining flying pokémon to return them to his fortress before raging out of the cave.   
His Pidgeot stood there, waiting for his return. "You won, master?" It said, it's English perfect.   
"Of course I won." Ash snorted, jumping on the huge bird's back. "We lost too many pokémon, though."   
"What are you going to do with them? They can't be killed. Are you going to trap them in the energy-drain rooms like the Houou?"   
"No, they'd just cause trouble later." He said, stroking the bird's long hair-like feathers. "I have a much better use for them."   
"Do you intend to break them?"   
"You'll see."   
"Yes, master. Shall we go?"   
"Yes... those puny humans need some consideration. Still, may as well have some fun with them first... after all, they're the only decent challenge that's popped up since we started..."   
"And the only one at all, most likely."   
"Yes... what a shame..."   
"Let us be gone..." Pidgeot spread it's wings wide, flapping hard off into the distance, followed by a contingency of several other flying pokémon carrying the three birds in a large net... 

~-~-~-~

"Are you sure there's another one around here, Suikun?"   
_Yes, there's an amulet holder in the area. That's all I can tell._   
"Well, all I can see is endless forest. And overgrown at that. Hasn't anyone been here for, what, the last five hundred years? How are you going, James?"   
"No better than you, but I'm not complaining about it."   
"Me-owth... at least there aren't any pokémon about..."   
It had been three weeks since they had met, and since Jessie had died. James had calmed down a little (With more than a little help from Sati), but had become quite hard. He could think of little but revenge on Ash.   
"Any idea who it is?" She asked.   
_Nup, sorry._   
Both were hacking their way through the thick foliage but on separate paths, with fair-sized ethereal knives (courtesy of James) helping them slash through. But they both knew that if the guy they were searching for didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be.   
_Have we tried calling for him yet?_ Sati suggested to James. He shook his head, then let out a cry.   
"Hey, whoever you are with the amulet! Show yourself!" He cried, as loud as he could. Jess cringed.   
"James, that's gonna call every pokémon within a hundred miles!" She cried. There was no response. "James?"   
_Hey, the knife!_ Suikun exclaimed. Jess looked down in her hand - the knife shimmered, flickered like a hologram with bad reception, then vanished. Before it had, however, she was off and running in the direction she knew he was in, ignoring the scratches and buffeting branches..   
Nothing.   
"James! Meowth!" She cried. "Where are y-errk!" She was cut off as a long vine wrapped around her mouth. Several more wrapped around her arms and legs, before she was suddenly yanked up into the treetops. Gently placed on a sturdy branch, she noticed James and Meowth sitting nearby, neatly trussed and gagged.   
"You three have a lot to learn about stealth." Said a new voice. A short, young woman with long greenish-blonde hair and dressed in khaki camouflage clothing flipped into the middle of the three. "I've spent a lot of time trying to hide, make this place impenetrable to pokémon, and then you three waltz in and announce to the world that there are human targets here. Real good."   
James and Meowth struggled slightly, but the vines just squeezed tighter. She turned to them. "So... What am I going to do with you?"   
Jess began to answer, but then remembered she was gagged. She rolled her eyes... and then started struggling as hard as she could to get out.   
"What are you doing?" Asked the new girl. Jess kept struggling, but realized she wasn't getting anywhere and calmed down... and the vines tying and gagging her suddenly froze and crumbled. She lifted an arm and unleashed an icebeam - right into the Fearow that had been about to dig it's talons into the girl's back.   
"Oh great, they've found us." She said, not even giving the slightest gesture of thanks to Jess for saving her life. "Let's go. They won't make it through the forest once I'm done with it..."   
She dropped down, and the vines wrapped around them lifted them gently down before letting them go.   
"Look, just follow me." She said, without looking back. "Then we'll see what we can do..."   
"Gee, really charismatic, ain't she?" Jess said sarcastically, but got running. James shrugged and followed on.   
It turned out to be quite a lot easier that they had expected. The forest that had been so cluttered and thick last time they'd tried to run through seemed now to have a clear path running through it. Either they'd somehow missed it... or the girl was making it as she ran.   
It wasn't that hard to work it out.   
Suddenly, the girl stopped, Jess almost running straight into her back. She gestured them close, and waved for silence. In the distance, a loud Fearow cry could be heard.   
"Why did we stop? They'll see us for sure if they have flying pokémon..."   
She raised an eyebrow, and then held both her hands straight up. At first, nothing happened...   
But then the rustling of branches became audible... vines and living trees seemed to suddenly maneuver all around them. They found themselves in a large dome of wood and vines, and none of them doubted that it would be quite difficult to break through...   
"Ah."   
"Well now, I'm Keira." Said the short girl, throwing her long hair back from where it had slipped from the run, and offering her hand. Jess took it.   
"I'm Jess, and this is James."   
"Sorry to have given you such a fright back there, but I'm not particularly interested in being caught by Ash's minions. And I think it's a wonder that you two haven't."   
"Gee, thanks." James said, not too unkindly.   
"Do both of you have amulets too? And why is that pokémon with you?"   
"Meowth's more human than pokémon, or at least that's what James says. Yes, we both have amulets." She held up her sapphire crystal.   
Keira dug into a hidden pocket and produced a sparkling emerald. "Hmm... yes, Florasaur said someone would come searching eventually. What are yours?"   
"I've got Suikun, and James Sati."   
Keira paused a moment, then shook her head suddenly. "Florasaur's never heard of them."   
_I seem to remember someone mentioning a Florasaur at some time or other... _Suikun mused. _Venusaur guardian, by the name..._   
"Well, now that we're here and apparently protected from pokémon... what do we do now?"   
"Just waiting would be the best idea." Keira answered. "It'll take a little while for the search to blow over. Pokémon are out searching in force, y'know."   
"So it would seem." Jess and James had fought off various pokémon attacks, but nothing serious yet.   
"In the meantime... exchange of stories?" Keira suggested.   
It wasn't long before they were chatting like old friends. Keira was twenty-one had been a grass pokémon trainer. She loved plants, and plant-types, and was always most at home while in a forest. She was a traveler, not a trainer bent on badges and pokémon mastery but one who simply tested her own skills against herself. This wasn't unusual - many trainers didn't believe in proving themselves through battling league challenges. She'd been traveling her entire life since she first got a pokémon...   
She'd been in this very forest when the pokémon had run off. She hadn't actually realized it at first - all of her pokémon had been running free, and she actually only found out they were missing when she had been calling for them for about an hour.   
Then she'd found Florasaur...   
"So... you have control over trees and plants?"   
"Not full control, but the plants around here are pretty... receptive. This area was - previously - sometimes known as Bulbasaur's Garden. They've been manipulating the nature of this forest for centuries. And Florasaur's the... evolution, or whatever... of Venusaur."   
As they swapped their life stories, the already dim light within the dome began to fade. Soon it was too dark to see, the moon and starlight filtered out by the wooden barrier. Taking off their bags, they quickly fell asleep... 

Once again, they found themselves in the blank dreamscape that appeared every night, but this time Keira was there too along with...   
It was quite awe-inspiring. It was somewhat taller than either Suikun or Sati, although that was probably because it was standing on it's hind legs. It's skin was green, striped alternatively in the dark green of the deepest leaves and the aquaish-green of a normal Venusaur.   
It actually had some almost Charizard-ish qualities to it, having a dragonlike shape - although with a much thicker face and no wings. (Tyrannosaur-ish, for those who don't live in the pokémon world...) It's front legs, although having hands quite stumpy and probably not much use, a thick mat of vines grew around each one. The flower that graced it's back was spectacular, curling around and over it's sides, in all sorts of different colors.   
If there was ever a form that mixed beauty and danger, that was it.   
"So... I don't believe I know you two." He said, voice very deep.   
"I'm Sati." Said the feline guardian, stretching and yawning deeply. "This here's Suikun."   
"I'm Florasaur, obviously..."   
"Well, what should we do in this little dream session?"   
"I'm happy to train, but not against her." Jess pointed to Keira.   
"What? Scared of me?"   
"Of course. I'm water, you're plant."   
"Good point. Oh well, how about we just both team up on James here?"   
"Hey, wait, you can't do that!" James said, backing off as the two girls advanced on him. All three of the guardians laughed.   
"I think if you want to get to James I'll have to help him..." Sati insinuated herself between the two groups.   
"Well, we'll just have to see about that..." Suikun leapt to Jess's side.   
"Yah, couldn't have that." Florasaur lumbered up beside Keira.   
"Hmm..." Sati grinned mischievously, looking from human to guardian to James, before suddenly flicking forward her head and maneuvering James onto her back, and running away.   
"A chase!" Suikun cried happily, crouching to let her human on. "Come on, Jess!"   
"Alright!" Jess climbed onto the huge water wolf's back, and they set off. Keira more carefully climbed onto Florasaur's back, to avoid damaging the flower, and he stomped off after the other two.   
Suikun was rapidly gaining on Sati, but the cat had a few tricks up her sleeve. A tree suddenly shot up from the ground some way ahead, and Sati clawed her way up it, barely slowing down. Suikun screeched to a halt, unable to climb.   
"Remember, it's our little world! We can do whatever we want with it!" Sati cried down.   
"Whoa..." Was all James had to say - he was still a little dizzy from the wild ride.   
"You're right, but you made one mistake!" Keira called up from Florasaur's back.   
"Wha- hey!" Sati was cut off as the branches of the tree started shaking violently. She somehow managed to leap off the flailing branches, and landed in what seemed to be midair. But there was no air - or ground, or anything - aside from what you imagined.   
"Let's go, Suikun!" Suikun raced off on an upwards slant, and Sati bounded off to be chased.   
"You'll have to do better than that, Suik!" She called back to her chaser.   
"Yah, you just watch where you're going!" Jess called back.   
"Whoa!" Sati almost stumbled as Florasaur suddenly loomed in front of her. She dodged a heavy blow with amazing agility and bounced off an invisible wall to run again.   
But didn't count on Florasaur's vine tripping her up.   
Sati sprawled, and James was thrown off and sent to roll across the 'ground'. Suikun pounced on the flattened Sati, and for a while all of them just rolled around and wrestled playfully.   
"You'll pay for that, cat!" Suikun laughed when Sati layed a flat paw across her muzzle.   
"Oh really? Too fast for you, water doggy!" Sati dodged a playful swipe.   
"Don't call me 'doggy'!"   
"And what are you gonna do about it?" The two of them rolled around laughing in a tangle of limbs while the others watched on.   
Suikun grinned and unleashed a low-power water gun, pushing Sati's head back and soaking her, but doing no real damage. Sati shook herself off.   
"You got me _wet!_" She snarled, and fought back vigo- _A Diglett popped up from underground and looked around, seeing three sleeping humans and a Meowth, incased within a barrier of wood... _-rously before stopping suddenly from the mental image just recieved.   
"What was- _The same Diglett popped up again in a spot just outside the forest and called up to another pokemon, an Electabuzz. Although no sound could be heard, it was obvious that it was telling of what it had seen..._ -that?"   
"Alright, this is just weird..."   
_The Electabuzz's long arm could be seen pointing at the forest. It yelled a command, although nothing was heard, an assorted group of fire pokemon directed their attacks at the forest's edge..._   
Suddenly the three shot up, fully awake. The forest was peaceful, it was still quite late at night. There was no sound from outside the wooden wall. All three sat for a moment, before James broke the silence.   
"Do you think that meant..." He trailed off the sentence.   
Keira held an arm up to the top of the dome. A small hole formed, although it was hard to tell, and a couple of vines reached down and pulled her up. James followed using a spectral grappling hook, and Jess after him.   
There was no sign of any fire as far as the eye could see. The three sighed in relief...   
Too soon.   
A huge flare of light shot up from the forests behind them, the incredible sheet reaching a couple of times higher than the trees themselves. It soon lowered and stablised, and steadily but quickly advanced across the forest.   
"And now, we run." Stated Keira.   
"Agreed." Said James.   
"Lower me down, I'll get Meowth..."   
"Right."   
Jess dropped quickly to the earthen floor, and scooped up the little cat pokemon, still asleep. The vines and wood that made up the wall parted, and she raced through.   
"Hmm, wish I had you carrying me here, Suikun." She muttered as she ran half-blindly through the trees with the Meowth in hand.   
_Don't worry, you're fast enough on your own._ Suikun advised. _Now, the two of them are up there in the treetops, just follow them!_   
Jess followed, not saying a word. She only ever saw a flash or two of them, mostly followed by ear or Suikun's directions. Mostly the latter, as the fire grew nearer, the smell and sound of it adding to her panic.   
_It's advancing too fast... they've probably got some flyers blowing it towards us..._   
Jess didn't answer. Every scrap of her being was concentrated on running as fast as she could.   
And if it wasn't for Suikun's urgent cry of _STOP!_ she would have run straight into the wall of flame that suddenly flared up in front of her.   
She saw Keira and James, standing and blocking their faces from the heat of the flames. Jess, being resistant, was the only one who saw the flames part slightly to show several pokemon walk through - Charmeleons and Flareons mostly, with the occasional Charizard and Ponyta here and there, one or two Magmar as well.   
"Sah ma-ch fa ya la-ttle ra-sa-sta-nc, ah?" Barked a Flareon.   
_So much for your little resistance._ The amulets translated.   
"Guys, get ready to run!" Jess cried over the roar of the flames. She powered up for a moment and unleashed a wave of Icebeams, setting a layer of ice over the pokemon. But it was thin, and melting rapidly.   
"Go! Now!"   
The three of them shot off, hearing the annoyed cries of the pokemon as they shook off the ice. They redoubled their efforts, and finally made it out of the forest.   
They had just enough time to take in the thirty or so pokemon waiting to get them when they escaped before the earth collapsed under them and they fell into a deep, deep pit... 


	7. Guardians Awaken - Chapter 5

Untitled 5 "Aaaaaaaaaaah!" Their screams faded as they fell down the huge pit, leaving the ambush party of pokemon quite confused.   
James managed to maneuver himself towards one of the walls, and used some etheral claws to dig in and slow himself down, although it nearly tore his arms off. Keira managed to grab Suikun and send out a mass of branches and vines to slow theirs. They all stopped screaming.   
The wooden mat slowed to a crawl, and James slid down to land on it with the others. "Well... This was unexpected..."   
"No kidding."   
"Shh... You can hear the pokemon up there..."   
"I don't remember the Digletts being told to do that." Said a low, raspy voice.   
"Di! Nit is!" Replied several voices in unison.   
"It wasn't you? Then... Well, let's make sure they're finished off..." Replied the first voice. "Mag... MAR!"   
Nothing happened for a moment, then the high point of light that was the top of the pit brightened.   
"Watch out!" Jess cried, and unleashed an Icebeam upwards. A thick barrier of ice formed, clear enough for them to see the huge fireball come rolling down the vertical tunnel and slam into it. It exploded powerfully, but didn't damage the barrier that much. They didn't even feel the heat from it.   
But what it _did_ do is slide the icy barrier on it's not-so-solid foundations down on top of them.   
The wooden floor fell out from under them as the rock-hard ice pushed down from above. But this time they seemed to slide, on a strangely smooth rock wall that grew less steep as they slid.   
Still, it was far too fast for comfort, and they were still screaming all the way.   
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"   
Until, quite suddenly, they realised that they were on flat ground, stationary and unhurt, except for a couple of minor friction burns.   
"Wow... that's what I call a Rock Slide..." James mumbled.   
The other two groaned. "Bad pun."   
"Where are we?" Meowth asked.   
"Huh?" Jess looked at the pokemon. "When did you wake up?"   
"About the time you screamed loud enough to wake the dead." He answered dryly.   
"Well, at least you're up."   
They dropped into silence, looking around. There was, amazingly, still enough light to see by from the top of the pit way up above. From here, there only seemed one way to go - a tunnel leading away from the long drop and into the darkness.   
"How are we supposed to find our way through that?" Meowth asked. "Not even I could see through... whoa!"   
As if in answer to their problem, a hole suddenly crumbled in one of the tunnel's walls, and a Charmeleon tumbled through, growling in suprise and pain.   
"Hey, a pokemon!" Jess cried, quickly dropping into battle stance. James readied himself too as the pokemon cried out in dismay as it noticed them, but Keira stayed back because of the elemental advantage it held.   
"So? Are you all there is to offer?"   
"Enough to take you, fool human..." It growled roughly.   
"Why can all the pokemon speak these days?" Meowth wondered quietly as Jess powered up. "Really wrecks the feeling of superiority... Not the only talking pokemon... may as well take care of- huh?" He realised the Charmeleon was soaked and lying moaning on the ground.   
"Hmm... I think we might have a solution to our little light problem."   
"What are you suggesting?" Keira was still hiding from the pokemon. "We take it with us?" She shuddered slightly.   
"What's wrong?"   
"I hate fire pokemon..." She eyed the lizard with disgust.   
"Don't worry, we just need a torch." Jess said. "So..."   
Keira nodded, and she handed a long, solid branch of dry wood. Jess lit it from the moaning pokemon's tail, then froze it completely solid with an Ice Beam, although leaving the weakly burning tail flame out of the ice. Keira gave it a wide berth.   
Holding the torch to the tunnel ahead, the four of them went on...   
...And as the light from the torch faded into the distance, a bright-eyed shadow slipped in from god-knows-where and followed, taking great care to step on and grind the frozen Charmeleon's tail flame out with one foot...   


~-~-~-~

Some time later, they were still making progress down the seemingly endless tunnel. Several times, fire pokemon had inexplicably tumbled through the walls, but the resulting holes led up into similar pits than the one they'd fallen from.   
Something was doing this. And the pokemon who had tumbled down were just as suprised as they were, so it probably wasn't pokemon...   
"Here comes another one!" Meowth warned. Sure enough, the wall crumbled and a Magmar rolled to a stop. Upon seeing the trio of humans, the flames around his body flared up for battle.   
Jess immediately readied, but Meowth let out another cry of warning and an Electabuzz fell through behind them.   
"Ah, at last, something I can deal with!" Keira shot out a couple of quick Razor Leaf attacks, cutting the pokemon.   
The Electabuzz blurted out something incomprehisible, and Magmar nodded. James, holding the torch and ready to back up both his friends, muttered quietly.   
"That's their boss, I think... why can't he speak?"   
"Electabuzz?" Meowth snorted. "All they can do is blabble. They can't even say their own names, let alone english..."   
The fighting began in ernest. Jess and Keira both had elemental advantage over their respective opponents, but they couldn't afford to let an attack past them lest it hit their vulnerable partner, while the powerful pokemon could dodge all the attacks they liked. James and Meowth stood back, unable to get close to either fight due to the stray elemental energy.   
Magmar managed to knock Jess over, and took advantage of the break to power up and throw a full-powered Fire Blast. Jess was well out of it's range, but Keira wasn't...   
"Keira! Look out!" Jess and James both cried together. James flattened himself against a wall, and Meowth only just dodged by ducking between the 'legs' of the fire star. Keira saw it coming, jumped, planted a double-footed kick into her opponent's chest and used the momentum to do a huge backflip out of the way of the rapidly approaching fire attack.   
It missed the Electabuzz too, unfortunately, and continued on through the tunnel. But everyone turned, suprised, when a cry sounded when the attack.   
The explosion of fire illuminated a tall, thin boy, who didn't seem as much pained by the attack than infuriated. He held a hand to the roof of the cave, concentrated a moment, then brought it down. Two columns of rock suddenly seperated from the roof and completely crushed the pokemon.   
"Hey, you're the one who's been doing this to us!" James concluded quickly. Jess and Keira were in slight shock from the heavy rock slamming down so near to them.   
"Yes, well done." He sneered back. "I've been testing you."   
"Who gave you the right whoa!" James was cut off as the earth seemed to slip beneath his feet. The roof above seemed to be shifting ominously. "I understand..."   
"Good. I did save you up there, after all..."   
"Ah, thought so."   
"And you'd better be grateful."   
"You would be?" Jess decided to try to be friendly with the guy, at least as long as he held the roof of the cave over their heads, so to speak.   
"Liam."   
"And the amulet? I'm guessing you have one." She silently chided Suikun for not telling her about another amulet holder in the area. She didn't reply.   
"Carnak..." He said simply, offering no further explaination. "Come on, no reason to hang around here..."   
He walked off into the dark tunnel, not looking around to see whether they were following. They looked at each other, shrugged and let him lead on...   


~-~-~-~

  
"So... You live down here?"   
"And cause quite a bit of havoc up there."   
"How?"   
"Do you think those pokemon appeared from nowhere?" He sneered at her. "The pokemon suddenly find a pit appear underneath their feet, and fall down to... your feet."   
"Geez, just asking."   
"I could probably take out Ash's castle with one well-placed earthquake, but he's got enough psychic and ground-types guarding the place I wouldn't get close. And that, I feel, is where you come in..."   
"Well, you're assuming a lot..."   
"Do you want to beat Ash or not?" The tunnel suddenly opened up into a huge cavern. Liam plonked down on a throne-like stone chair that sat at one end.   
_Subtle, ain't he?_ Suikun noted dryly.   
"So what do you intend we do, oh lord and master?" Meowth put in sarcastically.   
"Full-on assault from underground." He replied, looking a little suprised they hadn't already figured this From what I've seen, you two girls are water and grass, which means you can take out any ground pokemon with ease. I'm weak to ground assaults, despite being half-ground myself."   
"You don't think it'll be that easy, do you?" James said, almost boredly.   
"What?"   
"There's four of us." He said, then added, "Sorry, five with Meowth. Against every pokemon in the world? Even if we are strong, we're not invincible..."   
_I might have a solution for that..._ Suikun said carefully. Jess pulled the amulet up to her face.   
"What?"   
_There's a couple of places where we could do some recruiting..._ The answer was hesitant, but Jess didn't notice.   
"Recruiting? Isn't that what we're doing now?"   
"What's it saying?" Questioned Liam, but Jess waved him down.   
_For one thing, there's the elementals running around, but you'd have a hard time finding enough of them..._   
"Elementals?"   
_I'll explain later. However, there is another group, I think..._   
"You think?"   
_They _should_ lie outside the power of Ash, but I'm not sure. Houou saw them once, but it was only fleeting..._   
"You wouldn't be talking about Mews, would you?" Jess queried. The others looked very suprised.   
_No, they wouldn't directly attack Ash, or any pokemon for that matter. You'd never find them, unless they wanted to find you. I have another group in mind, although Mews may be involved..._   
"And you're not going to tell us anything?"   
_No._   
"Why not?"   
_Because Ash has a large compliment of Psychic-types, and I don't want him to know of them... At least not until we get there._   
"I guess that makes sense..."   
"Are you going to fill us in on what you're talking about?" Liam drummed his fingers impatiently on the stone armrest.   
"Suikun says she knows of a group of allies... but refuses to tell us who, what or where they are."   
_But I'll guide you to them._   
"But she'll guide us to them."   
"Sounds interesting." Liam conceded. "May as well get going, then."   
"But... we're hundreds of feet underground!" Pointed out James. "How do we get up?"   
Liam grinned.   
The ground under their feet suddenly started shaking wildly, then suddenly and without warning shot straight up. Everyone except Liam crouched, fearing the impact with the roof.   
It never came.   
They looked up, but it was no use - the torch had gone out when James had dropped it in fear. Then suddenly there was light, and they were all thrown into the air as the land came grinding to a halt. Except Liam, who calmly got up from the stone chair (Which rapidly sank into the ground behind him) and looked around, not bothering to help the others up.   
"So where are we going, then?"   
Jess picked herself up and glared at him, and pointed north. "That way, apparently." 


	8. Captures and Chases - Chapter 1 (6)

Untitled6 "Come on, I could take out the entire place with one attack."   
"So?"   
"Let me!"   
"No. You can't do that, we'll have every pokemon within the blast radius on our tails within seconds!"   
"Besides, there's gonna be a whole lot of people lying around down there... you don't want to kill them, do you?"   
The five of them were on a ledge overlooking the small city north of the burning forest, a couple of days after they'd had their narrow escape. Suikun had expressed that their destination lay that way, but to go that way they would have to pass through the city in front of them.   
"Can't you just dig us under?"   
"I could, but it would be bloody hard avoiding the tunnels..."   
"Tunnels?"   
"The sewer system, the network I'm sure the ground pokemon will have built up under the city... It wouldn't be much easier than going through the city."   
"We _could_ try to fight our way through..." Meowth suggested, but didn't sound like he relished the prospect.   
"No." Keira disagreed.   
"No." James.   
"Uh-uh." Jess.   
"Hmm..." Liam considered it.   
"**_No._**" The others all shot at him.   
"Alright! Just an idea..."   
"So how are we gonna get by this place, if we can't dig, fight or go through?" Meowth asked.   
"Well..." Liam started.   
"No."   
"Wait, just hear me out. If we can find out where the people are..."   
"Maybe we can cause a distraction?"   
"On the other side of town."   
"That might work... but how are we supposed to find out where the people are?"   
"They'll be instantly suspiscious if they see any humans around, especially us..."   
Everyone thought for a second, then as one got the same idea. They all turned to stare at Meowth.   
"Hey... what you looking at me for?"   
"I think this might be easier than we thought."   
"Guys?"   
"All we gotta do is make him act more like a normal Meowth..."   
"Change the accent a bit, he should be able to talk among other pokemon but with that accent they'd recognise him any day..."   
"Meowths are quiet, aren't they?"   
"Not this one!"   
"On their feet, I mean. He should be able to get in and out without anyone noticing..."   
"Hey! I never said I'd do this!"   
Everyone looked at him. "You never said you wouldn't." Jess teased.   
"Well, I'll say it now!"   
"Too late!"   
"Come on..."   
"Meowth, what's the worst that could happen?"   
"I get found out and killed!"   
"He has got a point there..." James said, suddenly looking dubious. "I don't want to lose Meowth too..."   
"Well, we're not going to get anywhere unless we find some way through this city." Liam said, glaring at both of them. "Do you have a better idea?"   
"Alright, I'll go..." Meowth resigned himself to his fate. "But if anything happens to me, I'm gonna kill you."   
"Okay..." They watched him go down. "I guess we should get ready..."   


~-~-~-~

Meowth slunk into the city, darted around a corner and shuffled across the wall, before realising just how stupid he was being. He was a pokemon, this city was run by the things... why would they be suspiscious of another pokemon, since for all intents and purposes treachery was impossible?   
So he strode confidently onto the street, then realised he would've given himself away should anyone have been on it. Just because all the pokemon could talk these days didn't mean all the Meowth walked on their hind legs like him. He dropped to all fours, and, taking a moment to adjust himself to the now-unfamiliar stance, sauntered off...   


~-~-~-~

The four humans busied themselves to get ready for battle. Or at least Liam did. There was still some hours of daylight left, and since they would probably be traversing the city in the dark the other three wanted to get some rest. The four of them lay down and were asleep almost instantly - it seemed so easy these days...   
The four of them appeared on the endless blank void that was the dreamscape. It had been a couple of days since they'd left the burning forests of the Bulbasaur, and so they'd already met Carnak, Liam's Guardian. But it still didn't fail to impress.   
A good fourteen feet tall when fully upright - although it normally remained crouched or on all fours - it was a brownish-grey colour, lighter on the underside. Although there wasn't much underside to speak of, since it was thin to the point of hardly being there - it could have hidden behind a reasonably thick pole, except for the wide, flat head. The head, and the series of long curved blades mounted along each long arm from elbow to wrist, suggested half Kabutops, although the body didn't match, and the head had altered slightly to give it an almost canine look, and was coloured blue on top.   
Despite it's fearsome and dangerous look, it was quite friendly. It had been one of the very first Guardians - obviously, since Kabutops were extinct these days - and was quite pleased to be alive again. Or as close to it as you could be. The others had thought, at first, that Liam's ruthlessness and cruelty had stemmed from his Guardian, but it seemed that he was just an asshole.   
However, he was worth having on the team - both Carnak and Liam could beat Keira, Jess and their guardians as often as not. Carnak's stick-like frame meant he was quite difficult to hit, and the blades were certainly something to reckon with. Liam had been quite a strong fighter even before he'd gotten the amulet, and combined with his fairly impressive speed he could take out the girls easily. And defence? He'd take the full brunt of a Razor Leaf attack, the only attempt at self-protection an arm raised in front of his face to protect his eyes, and not even flinch or stop his advance for a second.   
They got right into their training, James versus Keira and Liam fighting Jess. The guardians decided to stand back and spectate, or chat about old times...   


~-~-~-~

Meowth had almost forgotten himself and run around a corner when a Sandslash and a Nidorino walked down the street towards him, chatting casually in a strange mix of english and their own pokemon languages. But he managed to put up a confident face and strode by them, and to his delight they walked right by, giving him no more than a glance. He almost burst out laughing, but continued.   
_Now, let's see... I've been in this city before..._ Indeed, it held quite a lot of sentimental value to Meowth. This was the city in which he'd fought for the right to keep the little egg pokemon Togepi which he'd worked so hard to protect. A tear welled in his eye as he thought of the little creature, and he marched on, mentally trying to figure out where they'd keep the humans...   
His first thought was the pokemon center, but a quick glance inside revealed that wasn't it - there was nothing in there but a couple of Chansey behind the desk, and a couple of slightly injured pokemon. The center was small (as centers go) and certainly wouldn't fit the population of such a city...   
After several more incorrect guesses, he began to despair for ever finding them. But then he spotted, from a dark alley, a pair of Growlithe in a stance he recognised from many years opposing the police forces - on guard, and ready to attack.   
But instead of facing towards the outskirts of the city, to protect them from attack, they were facing a group of houses.   
_Bingo!_   
Meowth quickly scaled a wall and looked out from a high rooftop. There were pokemon of various sorts, mostly Growlithe and Arcanine, on guard and stationed around a large residential area. Meowth grinned, but set out to confirm, taking a daring leap from the rooftop he sat on to one inside the guarded area.   
He was so proud and confident in his ability to remain undiscovered as a pokemon among pokemon that he didn't even think to keep his guard up, and so didn't notice another shape, quite similar to his own, detach itself from the shadows and follow silently...   


~-~-~-~

_FLASH!_ _The city below was burning, burning freely. Pokemon, especially grass, bug and other types not fire-friendly, were running around in a blind panic; Water-types were trying desperately to extinguish the flames, but there was simply too much fire to do it. As they watched, a tall building slowly collapsed, taking out the building next to it, half of the one after that and no small number of pokemon... But then it set off a chain reaction among several other buildings, and that section of the town was reduced to a glowing, flaming pile of rubble..._   
All four humans, and their guardians, were staggered into silence for a moment by the strength of the vision, and all the paraphenalia they'd conjured dissapated. James was the first one to moan, "Not again..."   
"Again?" Carnak asked curiously.   
"This happened a while ago, just before we met Liam..." Jess said, so deep in thought she probably didn't even realise she was talking. "We saw the pokemon set the forest alight..."   
"And straight after we woke up, it came true..."   
"Nah... I don't believe it." Liam said, pushing himself up. "Nobody saw any humans in the fire, did they?"   
Everyone thought about it, and had to admit that they hadn't.   
"For all we know, this could be something that happened... will happen years in the future. Or a hoax by the psychic pokemon to try to scare us into not going any further." Liam explained, but it was forced. They could tell he was trying to convince himself as much as he was the others.   
"We could get through a fire." Suikun said confidently. Jess, typically, looked confident too. Of course, Keira and Florasaur were not nearly as confident...   
But their conversations were cut short as a familiar voice echoed over the black void. "Guys? Whaddya think yer doin', sleepin' on the job?"   
"Meowth's back." Jess commented dryly, and the darkness faded away to be replaced by the comparitively blinding light of real life. Meowth grinned.   
"It was easy. The entire city's population is holed up on the west wing of the city, guarded by a whole lot of Growlithes."   
"So..."   
"They looked a little paranoid, though." Meowth suddenly switched to thoughtful. "I reckon if we set something up on the other side of the city, they'd all run like crazy over to there to see what was going on."   
"Leaving us a clear path through the city!" James said.   
"It should be easy..."   
They started planning, knowing they'd be trying it within a couple of hours. The more they planned, the easier it sounded...   
But the bright image of the city blazing still hung in the back of their minds...   


~-~-~-~

The crashing and breaking simply couldn't be described with words. The five of them watched in shock as a good section of the east side of town shook loudly and visibly. A couple of the not-so-well constructed houses collapsed, but it didn't fail to grab a single pokemon's attention.   
"Hmm... that's not bad." Jess noted.   
"Maybe that thing we saw was just that part of the city?" Suggested Keira.   
"What?" Meowth looked up at her.   
"Don't worry."   
"We'd better get going." Liam noted. As Meowth had suggested, every pokemon that was guarding the area started and sped off towards the damaged section of the city.   
"This will be easy!" James gave an excited whisper.   
"Don't drop your guard. We'll go through carefully, just in case..."   
They stepped into the deserted streets, going as quietly as they possibly could. At one time or another, they all (even Liam) spared a glance to the houses full of the imprisoned humans of the town, longing to free them. But they'd agreed earlier that there wasn't any point in this - the people would simply be recaptured, probably with a high death toll in the process. And that wasn't something anyone wanted.   
But still, it made them feel like monsters to just walk past...   
"Grow-" An alarmed cry sounded behind them, but was cut off as Jess spun and unleashed an Icebeam. The fire dog was encased in ice with an extremely suprised look on it's face.   
"Dammit!" Liam cursed under his breath. "Quick, we've gotta get moving fast. We don't want anyone finding that and raising the alarm..."   
The five of them ran as fast as they could while making as little noise as possible. Jess was having the hardest time - James had previous experience, and so did Liam apparently. Meowth, of course, had no trouble at all, and Keira was as light-footed as any cat. But they got through the streets without any cries of alarm, except those sounding well off to the east side of town where there was still some trouble with the quake's damage.   
Finally, they saw the open fields from the road. Trying to suppress their excitement, they ran towards it...   
And suddenly found themselves unable to move!   
_What the... _The amulets voiced their feelings, and the humans would've too if they could move their mouths.   
_So... the fool humans thought they could get away with it. _A new psychic voice said with a laugh   
They felt themselves being lifted into the air, and swiveled to look at their captor - a puny little Abra.   
_I don't believe this... _Moaned Suikun. The Abra laughed aloud.   
_Your Meowth friend there... I don't understand how he can disobey Ash's commands. I'm sure Ash would like to meet him... He'd soon set him straight._   
James cried out in anguish. "Don't hurt Meowth!" He struggled against the psychic bonds, but failed; his struggles slowed as the Psi pokemon concentrated the disable attack on him.   
But just before he became completely immobile again, he sent an etheral blade spinning towards the tiny being.   
It looked suprised, but wasn't alarmed, as he released the attack. The reason why became apparent when a Graveler suddenly jumped out and blocked the blade easily. Quite a few pokemon, mostly on their second evolution, stepped out from the shadows.   
_Really... I'm sure he'll want to meet you as well. I'll get rewarded for bringing you in... Maybe he'll even evolve me!_   
_ Evolve?_ Jess thought. _He can do that?_   
_ Of course!_ Suikun answered with a snort. _We all can. Comes with the job. Hardly ever used, though..._   
Liam suddenly struggled and stretched against the power holding him in place. With a mighty kick he managed to touch the ground beneath him.   
The result? Instant chaos.   
A white line zig-zagged it's way across the ground to beneath the pokemon, before suddenly glowing and splitting... And the entire street seemed to split apart!   
Many of the smaller pokemon fell into the hole, screaming madly. The Abra managed to hold itself up psychically, but in the process let go of it's enemy. They leapt onto the side of the shattered street.   
"Now! Everything you've got!" Jess and Keira cried together. Various pokemon were left frozen, impaled, tied up or in deep pits. The Abra teleported itself away from one of Jess's Ice Beams.   
_You'll pay, humans!_ It growled psychically, then yelled. _To every pokemon in the city! We've found the amulet-holders! They're the cause of the earthquakes!_   
"That'll bring them all down on us!" Meowth wailed the obvious.   
Jess, Keira, James and Meowth were all set to get running, but Liam had one card up his sleeve. With a loud yell, he slammed his fist into the ground.   
The resulting Earthquake knocked even him off his feet. He quickly jumped up, helped up the others and yelled, "RUN!"   


~-~-~-~

They were now some distance away from the destroyed city, and had slowed down when it became apparent that they weren't being chased. Looking back, they saw a very familiar scene.   
The city below was burning, burning freely. Pokemon, especially grass, bug and other types not fire-friendly, were running around in a blind panic; Water-types were trying desperately to extinguish the flames, but there was simply too much fire to do it. As they watched, a tall building slowly collapsed, taking out the building next to it, half of the one after that and no small number of pokemon... But then it set off a chain reaction among several other buildings, and that section of the town was reduced to a glowing, flaming pile of rubble...   
"Just like what we saw..." Whispered Jess, almost reverently.   
"Uh-huh..."   
But it was much, much worse. In the flash, all they'd experienced was the image of the burning city. It hadn't encompassed the deafening crackle of the flames, the occasional crash as a building collapsed...   
And over it all, the horrible dying screams of so many pokemon... 


	9. Captures and Chases - Chapter 2 (7)

Untitled7 "Amazing... truly amazing..." Ash muttered as he looked at the creature in the strong-walled room front of him. Although currently there wasn't much to see, since it was curled up in the foetal position and was glowing a brilliant white. "I never imagined..."   
His Pidgeot waddled to stand beside him and looked through the window. "What is this? The bird project?"   
"No... I've put that on hold while I develop this one..."   
"What is it?"   
"You never could stand having secrets kept from you, could you?" Ash laughed. "Well, you'll just have to wait and see."   
The pokemon looked hurt. "Don't you trust me?"   
"Actually, it's because I don't know what it'll be myself..."   
Pidgeot looked closer. "Hmm... looks familiar... hey, isn't tha-"   
"That's right."   
"What are you doing?"   
"Experimenting."   
A look of fear and mistrust flashed over the bird's face for a second (Although it was difficult to read, 'cos of the beak...) and Ash laughed when he saw it. "Don't worry, I wouldn't experiment with you... unless you really wanted me to, that is... And in the end, you might..."   
It looked doubtful, and began to say something, but suddenly a Spearow flew in through the window and promptly collapsed. They both rushed up to it, and saw just how hurt it was. Ash scooped it up.   
"What happened to you?"   
"Humans... powers... burnt city... death..." The Spearow fainted before it could get another word out. Ash shook with rage, and placed the Spearow on a mat. He whistled loudly.   
"Chansey!" A cheery pink egg pokemon waddled in, took one look at the crispy Spearow and immediately scooped it up and carried it out of the room. Ash walked up to his Pidgeot.   
"Ready for a nice flight?"   
"Yes, master..." Pidgeot offered the Guardian his back. The two flew off, to search for the burning city.   
And back in the lab, the forgotten experiment began to change, painfully slowly, but fast enough... 

~-~-~-~

The four humans and Meowth ran blindly through the night, running from the city and all it's inhabitants. But even if they could distance themselves from a retaliation by the angered creatures, they all knew they would never get away from the sounds... the awful screams, dying calls...   
There was no telling whether the screams were still caused by the pokemon of the city, or their memories and guilty consciences ganging up on them...   
But on they ran...   
In the darkness, Jess tripped over an upraised root and fell flat. The others slowed and yelled at her to get up.   
But she couldn't. She almost laughed when she felt the tears falling down her face, although it took her a moment to realise why...   
_Deja vu... now isn't this scene familiar? _She thought back to the time when she'd first met Suikun... Less than a month ago...   
The pain of the fall had shocked her clouded mind into clearer thinking, but that was no great relief at all.   
_One month... about one month since the pokemon ran away, and now we're killing them to survive..._   
She sighed and retreated into an even deeper depression. Liam, growing impatient, grabbed her arm and roughly pulled her to her feet, but she simply collapsed again.   
"Don't worry... go on." She sighed again. "Leave me to the pokemon. I don't want to live in this new world... I don't deserve to live either..."   
Everyone was shocked momentarily. Suprisingly, it was James who recovered first, and with a show of anger he would normally never give.   
"Now you listen to me!" He snatched her up by her collar. "I've already lost one Jess through this! You've got no right to just give up on the rest of us!"   
Jess was somehow annoyed and angered at him. "Is that right?" She argued back. "Well, think about this - what if one of _your_ pokemon was in that city? What if your Victreebell just burned to death? What if your Weezing was caught in the fire?"   
James was stunned into silence. "I... hadn't... thought..." His grip on Jess loosened and he slowly keeled over. Keira turned very pale, but the insensitive Liam just looked around for any pokemon who might be near.   
"For god's sakes, we'll never get anywhere with this..." He grumbled, and slammed a foot down. A crack traced it's way around the group in the ground, and suddenly they were plummetting deep underground...   
And presently, the chunk of rock replaced itself above ground with barely a slit to show what had happened... 

~-~-~-~

Liam was just getting plain frustrated.   
It had been a couple of hours since they'd come down into the underground cave. At least he'd managed to convince Keira to conjure up some plant matter to use to light the gloomy atmosphere. But Jess was still in a sulk, sobbing softly, James was right next to her, and Keira looked like she was going to be sick. Meowth was faring a little better, and idly chatting with the cat was all Liam could do to keep his sanity in his impatience.   
He looked up when Jess's sobbing stopped. He was optimistic enough to think that she might have recovered, but soon realised she'd cried herself to sleep...   
_Hmm... she's a_s_leep? _He thought. An idea formed in his mind. It was cruel, but then, this was Liam we're talking about...   
He conversed breifly with his Guardian, then made his way to talk to Keira and James.   
"Listen... in this state, Jess is never going to be able to fight with us."   
"What?"   
"I've got an idea... it's not very nice, but I think it might be the only way to solve this..." 

~-~-~-~

Jess awoke in the cave, yawned and stretched, and looked around. It took her a couple of seconds to pull together what was wrong: there was no-one else there.   
She panicked breifly, and instinctively grabbed for the sapphire amulet at her neck. She sighed with relief as she felt it.   
"Suikun!"   
_Yes? What is it?_ The amulet half-yawned.   
"Where are all the others?" She hissed. "They're gone!   
_What? _Suikun screeched. Jess leapt up, scanning the cave once again for any sign of life. Something caught her attention - the torch had been mounted on a rocky mound, and a piece of paper appeared to have been attached to a branch sticking out of the heap. Jess scooped it up.   
To Jess,   
We're sorry, but we don't think you should continue with us on this journey... Liam left you a tunnel to the surface in the side of the cave, feel free to leave and do as you wish... There's no point in coming with us if you can't handle fighting pokémon. Thanks for your help, we're sorry to leave you behind...   
The note was signed by Keira. Jess was silent for a moment, then gasped in shock and half fell over - sure, she'd gotten a little emotional, but she'd had reason to...   
...Hadn't she?   
"They... left me behind..." She said, barely believing it. "They... left me... behind..."   
_Well... I do seem to remember you saying to leave you behind to die at the hands of the pokemon... _Suikun pointed out.   
"What? Whose side are you on?" She growled at the amulet...   
_I'm not happy about this either..._ Suikun said, the tone of her psychic voice making this all too clear. _But let's face it, there's only one person to blame..._   
"Hey!" Jess snorted. "Some help you are!" In her rage, she actually pulled the amulet off and flung it across the cave before collapsing back into a sulk.   
_You're never going to get anything done like that. _Suikun lectured. _And I really don't appreciate your throwing me like that._   
"Oh, just shut up!" She yelled back.   
_Hmph!_ Suikun took minor control of her body, even from all the way across the room, and forced her to Water Gun herself in the face. _Wake up, Jessica! The only way you're gonna survive out there is to get back with the others! You can't just sit here moping forever!_   
Jessie was too down to even think of a retort for that one, let alone move, so she just shook some of the water out of her hair and continued to mope. She could hear the guardian growling impatiently within herself, but paid it no mind.   
Nevertheless, she jumped in suprise when the water wolf roared, _GET OFF YER ASS AND GET MOVING! Or I'll go and find someone else to bond with, and we'll go beat Ash!_   
"Okay! If it'll shut you up, for god's sakes!" She pushed herself up, annoyed as ever, then muttered "Not like you could... you're nothing but a little amulet, how could you go anywhere? And where are you, anyway?"   
By the time Jess had found the amulet and the tunnel entrance, she'd calmed down a fair bit, much to Suikun's relief. She actually apologised as she scooped up the torch sitting nearby...   
_That's okay. I'm sorry I had to do that, but you needed _something_ to get you moving..._   
"How far do you think they will have gotten?" Jess set off into the tunnel mouth.   
_They're a few miles away. Either that, or they're so far away it isn't funny and there's another trio of amulet-holders there..._   
"I hope I'm not too late to catch up with them..." She whispered fearfully.   
_Don't worry..._   
Jess stopped talking, because the tunnel had reached a sharp uphill curve and she had to use her hands to help her climb.   
_Look! Daylight!_ Suikun whispered. Indeed, the torch she carried was no longer necessary as weak daylight filtered through. Heartened by this sight, she doubled her efforts to make it to the top...   
She practically leapt out of the small tunnel entrance, gulping in the beautiful fresh air after so long in the stuffy cave. She reached for her backpack for some food - she hadn't eaten since before they'd gotten to the city - and before she knew what was happening, she was in a world of pain.   
"Aaarrrgghh!" She screamed, as electricity ripped through her body. She tried to turn over to see just what it was that was attacking her, but even as the convulsions caused by the electric attack faded, she knew the attack had paralysed her...   
"Heheheh... Looks like we caught one of them at last..." A voice laughed, and if she could move she would have cringed just at the horrid sound of it. "Back to base!"   
Suikun gave a fearful moan. _It's Ash..._   
Before Jess knew what was happening, she was hanging limply over the shoulder of a pokemon, enraged at the helplessness she felt... 

~-~-~-~

The trip back to the base seemed to pass by in a blur. Jess attributed this to the paralysis. When she finally found herself able to move again, she got up... and immediately collapsed onto the floor again...   
_What's happening?_ She thought to herself. She tried to get up, but felt so tired she could barely lift a finger.   
_It's an energy-drain room. _Advised Suikun. _Remember, like the one Ash trapped Houou in._   
"Great..." She did, indeed, feel drained. She couldn't call up enough energy to move, let alone escape or defend herself. "Now I understand how Houou felt..." The very effort of talking was making her even more exhasted, and for a moment she must have blacked out, because the next thing she knew she was being hoisted up by a Machoke and carried out of the room.   
"Don't suppose you've got enough power to call up an attack?" She mumbled to the pendant now hanging down from her neck.   
_I don't if you don't. _Suikun said sadly. _Sorry._   
The Machoke carrying her sniggered. She looked a little annoyed, but didn't do anything because she couldn't. Two more pokemon - she couldn't tell what - joined them as two doors opened to show a huge hall, and the Machoke let her slump down to the ground, and now out of the energy-draining room she felt some of her strength return.   
"Well, well, well. Nice to meet you... what was your name again?" Ash's voice came from further up the room, but his body was hidden in shadow, only a faint outline showing.   
_Don't even dignify him with a response..._ Suikun said, hatred warping her voice. Jess agreed silently, and just glared angrily at him.   
"Not in a talkative mood, eh? Well, maybe we'll just have to torture it out of you... What would be the most powerful torture we could afford to give such a guest?"   
Suikun growled lowly. _That does it. Think we've got enough energy for an attack yet?_   
"I dunno..." She muttered under her breath. She wanted to freeze and then shatter the freak, but still felt awfully lethargic.   
_You do now._ Suikun said, concentrating. Jess felt a sudden surge, like a splash of ice-cold water on the face, and a burst of energy... She threw out her arm towards Ash, unleashing everything she had in an Icebeam...   
Ash gave a sharp laugh, waved his hand and the beam simply dispersed into the air. Jess collapsed, seeing the despair of fighting one so powerful...   
"She's obviously not going to be co-operative. I think I'll have a little fun with her... Throw her in an ordinary cell. Let her build up her energy; she's going to need it for this..."   
The Machoke, along with the other two pokemon who she now saw to be a Vileplume and an Arcanine, saluted to the best of their ability and marched out, taking Jess with them... 

~-~-~-~

Sitting miserably in the heavily guarded cell, Jess thought about the horrible train of events that had led her here...   
_Why did I have to be such a baby? _She wondered. _I should have just gritted my teeth and gone on, gone with the others..._   
Suikun was silent. She had been since that failed attempt on Ash, but Jess could feel her depressed attitude at the back of her mind, furthering her own depression...   
She thought of the other three, and hoped they were having much, much better luck than she...   
_At least I'm strong enough to actually attack now..._   
As if the thought had triggered it, she heard a key being fiddled with in the lock, and the Machoke opened it. "Ash wishes to see you. Please do not waste your energy trying to escape, or you will be killed." It said, without emotion. It motioned her out of the cell, and as she left she saw just how many high-powered pokemon were standing around here.   
_It's not worth it. Do as the Machoke says._ Suikun advised, speaking up at last.   
Angrily, Jessica followed the Machoke down various corridors, until they got to the huge double-doors that had led to Ash's cavern before.   
Again, the doors swung open, and she looked across the huge room to meet the eyes of the shadowed figure.   
"So, _Jessica,_" He accentuated the name, showing her he knew it. "Are you prepared to tell me where the others are? Or must we beat it out of you?" His tone clearly indicated that he'd prefer the second.   
"They left me." She spat out. "They ran off and left me by myself."   
"Left you? Ha!" He scoffed. "They wouldn't do that. The guardians aren't stupid enough to disband such a valuable asset. Nice try."   
Jess refused to argue.   
"Unless... you refused to come with them." He said. Jess immediately snapped her head towards him; he knew he'd hit a nerve.   
"That's it, isn't it? You chickened out. You refused to fight pokemon... oh, this is brilliant." He started laughing. Jess was getting really angry, but didn't dare attack him; she knew that he was far more powerful, and along with the Machoke, Arcanine and Vileplume that were there before was a Persian and a Venusaur, and they all looked ready to attack her.   
"Well, that makes our little training session all the more fun. Bring out our challenger!"   
The huge double doors opened once again, and a huge blue pokemon came out; the fearsome form of a Nidoqueen could not be mistaken anywhere. It let out a mighty roar, then set it's sights on Jess.   
Jess crouched, ready to fight. Sure, if Ash wanted to challenge her, she'd play. What sort of idiot would send a half-ground type pokemon against something that specialised in water and ice anyway?   
Not waiting for the Nido to make the first move, she unleashed an Ice Beam... which was countered as the beast unleashed her own Ice Beam, and as the two collided a huge block of ice formed and fell to the ground between them.   
The strange reflections caused by the too-quickly formed ice meant that she couldn't clearly see the pokemon through it, and she waited for an attack...   
Almost too late, she noticed the crack running from under the ice to her feet, and jumped away just in time before the ground split in a fissure attack. The ice structure managed to remain standing, even as the fissure slammed closed again. Jess shuddered to think what might have happened had she been caught in that gap...   
Suddenly, the huge ice block shuddered under a tremendous impact, cracking everywhere... and a second impact shattered it into several distinct pieces. The Nidoqueen landed from the Double Kick attack, and immediately proceeded to use Strength to throw one of the huge iceblocks at Jess.   
She ducked out of the way in time to avoid the block, but not the icy shrapnel produced when the thing hit the ground. She was forced to avoid two more pieces, getting cut up fairly badly, but then slipped on the icy surface to unfortunately land right in front of the Nidoqueen.   
The pokemon grabbed her and started squeezing her, a deadly submission attack. Jess heard her bones creak as the pressure got higher and higher... and she managed to turn her hands to be facing into the Nidoqueen's stomach, powering up an attack as she found herself unable to breathe for the pressure...   
"You wouldn't do that..." A voice grunted in her ear. It took her a moment to realise it was the pokemon talking to her.   
"I... will..." She managed to gasp.   
"What? Don't you recognise me?" Suddenly, the pokemon threw her to the floor, and she looked at the pokemon even as she gasped for breath...   
_Oh no... don't let it be..._ The icy blue power drained from her hands as realization dawned....   
It was _her _Nidoqueen!   
"Not so eager to fight now, are we?" Ash taunted, laughing. Jess was too shocked to even defend herself as the huge creature kicked her across the room, and that only proceeded to shock her even more...   
"Nidoqueen... why?"   
"You're not my master anymore..." Nidoqueen grunted, almost smugly, as she charged at the puny human who had once trained her. Jess managed to pull herself together enough to create an icy barrier for her protection, but it was promptly shattered.   
"So all those years I trained you... for this? Now you're going to kill me?" Jess jumped out of the way of a fearsome double kick, but it was obvious her heart wasn't in the fight...   
"Ash knows... training pokemon is evil. Pokeballs are evil. Trainers should be punished for keeping pokemon captive like this..." The tone of her voice was bordering on religious fervour... "And after all, you claim you love your pokemon, but I've heard of your story... you've been killing pok-"   
"Enough talk!" Ash said. "Just beat her up."   
"Right." The Nidoqueen charged once again, and this time Jess wasn't fast enough to dodge the heavy punch. She flew back, landing heavily and hurting all over.   
_Well, this just keeps getting better and better..._ She moaned to herself. She managed to raise herself up to see the pokemon charging an attack in it's horn, and suddenly what looked like blue-white electricity flashed towards her in an Icebeam.   
But when it hit, the energy was absorbed into her and she suddenly shot up like a rocket, feeling strong as an ox. The Nidoqueen growled in suprise.   
"No use using ice attacks on her." Ash's voice called. "Try something else!"   
"Come on, Nidoqueen..." Jess gave a final plea for her pokemon. "Queenie? Remember the good times? I never treated you badly. You were part of the team! How many trainers did you single-handedly defeat? Who spent almost her entire savings on that Moon Stone to-"   
Jessie was cut off as the pokemon launched a foul-smelling Toxic attack, and she only just managed to keep the poisonous goop from her face. But even as it touched the bare skin on her arms, she could feel the awful effects of the poison starting to sink in...   
"No..." She gasped, as she felt herself once again running short of energy... she began to sway, and stumbled, but managed to keep on her feet.   
"Well, human?" Nidoqueen laughed gruffly. "Aren't you going to fight back? Weak creature..."   
"Ah, go ahead, Nidoqueen. Finish her off." Ash's voice came from the shadows. The world around Jess began to swirl.   
"Hyper beam!" Cried the pokemon, and the stumpy horn began to glow a brilliant yellow, powering up and growing brighter until it was too bright to look at directly...   
Not even Jessie was certain why it was - whether it was the effects of the poison, the culumnative stress since the city had burned, the humiliation and frustration of having to fight one of your best friends to the death, or some combination of the above - but she knew, even as she released the attack, that it was a lot stronger than it should have been.   
The high-powered Ice Beam slammed into the Nido's stomach, and she gasped at the icy blast to which she was so weak and keeled over. The energy drained from her horn as she lay moaning on the ground. Even through the poison haze, Jess gasped in horror at what she'd done and raced to her ex-pokemon's side.   
"Nidoqueen, no..."   
"I'm sorry, Jess..." It whispered. The poison's effects were getting worse; Jess felt like she was going to be sick, and wasn't sure whether the words came from the pokemon or a hallucination.   
"Don't blame me... don't pity me... it's Ash, remember..." The pokemon gasped. "Sorry... stop Ash, save the others..."   
Suddenly, Nidoqueen's dying speech was cut off as a bolt of lightning arced down and ripped through her chest, burning her horribly. After the electric convultions stopped, her head hung loosely to the side as blood began to drip from her mouth...   
"Hmm... maybe you do have some promise for your friends, too bad you won't be able to help them now..." Ash gloated. "Weak pokemon... see if you can find her Blastoise somewhere, I'm sure she'll have fun with that. Take her back to her cell."   
Even through the poison's detrimental effects, Jess could feel her anger growing, and with it her energy. The Machoke, along with the Arcanine and Venusaur, moved towards her, ready to take her back to her cell.   
"YOU BLOODY FREAK!" She suddenly screamed, and suddenly the area around her swirled with icy energy. The three pokemon were thrown back, Arcanine and Venusaur taking the worst damage since they were vulnerable to ice.   
The energy vortex became stronger, as Jess's vision faded into a mix of angry red and icy blue, until she couldn't hold it any longer and unleashed it at Ash!   
Every surface in the room was instantly frost-rimmed as the temperature dropped as if dropped off a cliff. The pokemon shuddered and shook, trying to clear off the ice covering their skin or fur. But Ash had no such luck; the icy energy swirled around him with the power of innumerable icebeams, the temperature such that frostbite would set in within a second, and even before the attack climaxed he was frozen stiff.   
But then the real power kicked in. Swirling not unlike a Dragon Rage attack, the vortex froze into position, forming an incredible ice sculpture around the unlucky would-be world ruler which she knew was many times harder than any metal, simply by the cold still radiating off it.   
But it still hadn't finished - the temperature difference, even within the frozen room, was too great to keep the structure steady, so a huge crack raced around it with a noise like a hundred sledgehammers hitting stone. A second followed soon after, then another three in quick succession.   
Five seconds later, the entire structure exploded.   
A fairly heavy chunk of the ice managed to hit Jess's form, and along with the rather draining attack she'd just done and the poison she'd been enduring, it was enough to knock her out... 

~-~-~-~

Slowly, Jess woke up. Her first feeling was one of deja vu - a dim room lit by one flickering flame.   
_Wait a minute..._   
A quick check confirmed it - she was back in the cave. And the others were there too! It'd been a dream...   
_But I don't have dreams... What about that dreamscape thing?_   
_ Maybe it was another vision..._ Suikun suggested.   
"You saw it too?" She asked quietly.   
_Yeah..._   
"Too bad... I would have like to do that to Ash... One hell of an attack, that one..."   
_Don't worry, we'll get our chance. And this time we'll stick with those guys, no matter what it takes!_   
"Yeah!" Jess cried, then realised she might wake the others, and sat in quiet contemplation of the vision while she waited for them to awaken... 

~-~-~-~

There was nothing to be recognised in this room. An icy veneer covered the place, and that was followed by a thick coating of shattered ice bits.   
Suddenly, a plume of flame shot up from one area of the room, the ice melting to water then evaporating to steam within seconds. The Arcanine, panting heavily, shook himself of the water that still clung to his coat.   
The melting spread, until slowly but surely the room was cleared of the icy debris. The pokemon, laying around everywhere, began to painfully stretch and slowly get up.   
"She's a little stronger than I thought..." Muttered the Vileplume, in a voice that sounded quite strange for one of it's type.   
"Agreed."   
"I think she'll fight now." A voice came from the other side of the room. They all looked as the shadowedfigure of Ash limped towards them.   
"I won't argue."   
"Me neither."   
As Ash emerged from the shadows which had hidden his form since the start, the light revealed his true visage - Liam.   
"Too bad I was a part of this." The Arcanine said, as it's form glowed as if evolving. But it shrunk, and it's form changed, until James stood there, holding his chin in thought. "I could have used something like this myself, but the effect would be rather ruined now..."   
The other pokemon also glowed and changed - Vileplume became Keira, Persian and Venusaur into their respective super-powered guardians, and the Machoke elongenated into Carnak's huge form.   
"You play a pretty good Ash." Commented Keira to Liam, as she stretched her once-again human body. "That was a strange experience..."   
"Thanks..." Liam grinned, and leapt backwards to stand with his upper body in the shadowed section, posing dramatically. Everyone looked at him and laughed...   
...except James, who suddenly fell backwards in surprise. This, of course, brought more laughter to the others, but before they could ask what it was that had spooked him, another groan came from nearby.   
A greenish-pink light surrounded the dead Nidoqueen, and the fatal injuries faded away. She slowly got herself up...   
And transformed quickly to Suikun.   
"I really hope I don't have to do that again." She moaned. "It goes against every code, attacking your own charge with intent to kill."   
"You couldn't have killed her. After all, you died, didn't you?"   
"Not my point. And anyway, did you have to throw that thunderbolt or whatever? That _really_ hurt..."   
Liam waved aside the comment. "How's Jess doing?"   
"Fine. She's waiting for you lot to wake up, and thinks the entire thing was another vision. She's rearing to go."   
"Great. Remember, we had nothing to do with this."   
"Right."   
"Uh-huh."   
The seven of them faded from the frozen room as they woke up, and the room followed suit as there was no-one there to keep it up... 


	10. Captures and Chases - Chapter 3 (8)

Untitled8 No single word, no matter what tricks can be played with font, size or style, could really describe the explosion that rocked the countryside and lit up the night sky, causing comment among entrapped human and victorious pokémon alike.   
However, none who saw the blast were more annoyed than Ash, returning from the city which the humans had destroyed, who knew almost at once that the column of fire that erupted was centered upon his fortress.   
None, that is, except those pokémon who were in the blast radius at the time...   
The Pidgeot flew at full possible speed as possibilities flashed through Ash's mind as to the cause of the blast. Another rogue amulet holder? No, the pokémon would have spotted it, and unless it had power beyond imagining - maybe even rivaling Ash's own - it would not be able to cause such a blast while being attacked by so many.   
An accident during battling? Perhaps, although unlikely...   
Then Ash realized what it must be... the experiment that he'd left when the Spearow had reported in!   
_Of course... making stupid mistakes like you used to, Ash..._   
He immediately banished the thought from his mind. _I have no weakness. I am no longer the naive little child who wanted to become a pokémon master... now I am the true master, mastery beyond imagining!_   
_ You just keep trying to convince yourself that, Ash._   
He ignored that thought.   
The experiment had been conducted on one of the tall towers of the fortress, in case of just this happening. The tower in question... simply wasn't, completely obliterated. Several other towers nearby, and the roof of the fortress, held heavy scorch-marks, also destruction was apparent in several places.   
When they finally lay eyes on the cause of the destruction, Pidgeot pulled up short. The enraged being was shouting it's defiance to the sky and attacking fiercely any pokémon foolish enough to get too close, ripping them to shreds or tossing them of the castle as if they weighed nothing, without a shred of mercy.   
After watching it's incredible powers in action for a time, Ash remembered that he was supposed to be protecting the pokémon and ordered Pidgeot to fly in. The huge creature saw the bird coming in, with Ash on it's back. Recognition seemed to gleam in it's eyes for a moment, before being replaced by pure hatred.   
Lightning-fast attacks were barely dodged by the powerful bird, and the retaliating whirlwind barely fazed it at all. Ash made a decision and jumped down to the fortress's damaged roof and faced off the being, although he was little more than two-thirds its size.   
Although the experiment was fast, Ash's near-godlike powers allowed him to be faster still, as he dodged attack after attack with ease. A Lightning Matrix immobilized the massive creature, and Ash levitated up to stare the creature in it's hate-filled eyes.   
"Listen, you. You may be changed, but you're still a pokémon, and as such will answer to _me_. Got it?" Ash hissed, utilizing every scrap of his pokemon-controlling ability to sway the beast. It seemed to work, as the anger faded from it's eyes and, although it wasn't readily visible in the movement-disabling matrix, untensed. Ash let the attack dissipate, but was ready to pull it straight back should the creature try any tricks. But it didn't.   
"Hmm... quite an experiment, master. Although we might not have much of a fortress left should they all be this... powerful."   
"True. But I simply neglected this one. It will make a fine fighter, once trained." He waved his hand to the destruction around. "You see what it is capable of..."   
As always, the Pidgeot looked doubtful. "I somehow think this is a bad idea. You should kill it now, or you'll regret it later..."   
"You're a superstitious fool. It's a pokémon, and pokémon can't harm me."   
"Whatever you say, master..." The bird shrugged.   
"Now, let's see what we need for our new friend..." Ash leapt through one of the holes in the roof to the chamber below. The experiment creature followed, and Pidgeot flew off to it's nest, knowing that tonight's flying was at an end and he probably wouldn't be needed by Ash for some time, except as an advisor on the subject of the strange creature that had been produced by the experiment... 

~-~-~-~

_Five days later..._

"Keira! Look behind!"   
"Gotcha!"   
"Can't catch me, little Ivysaur!"   
"These pokémon aren't very strong. Yeah, I'm insulting you! What are you gonna do about it?"   
The four of them were dancing circles around the increasingly frustrated pokémon. The Ivysaur was the leader and the most powerful, but was forced to watch as again and again its vines slapped harmlessly against the stone blocks thrown up by Liam.   
A Raticate tried without success to get close enough to James to use any of it's attacks, but James's etheric blades kept it at bay. Keira was alternatively blocking with her vines or flipping out of the way of any attack a Beedrill was using on her. Meowth was easily out-fighting a Pikachu - it wasn't close to Ash's one's level, and if you last that long against such a powerful electric pokemon you build some resistance to thunder attacks. Jess had already defeated two pokemon - a Sandshrew that now lay half-dissolved on the ground and a Machop that had been frozen for too long to hope of living even if thawed - and was leaning back against a tree and watching the others.   
Keira and Liam had now swapped opponents, Keira winning a vine-whip wrestling match while Beedrill's poison and stinger attacks having no effect whatsoever on Liam.   
"Ive! That's enough!" The 'saur growled, retracting its whips and suddenly leaping back into a stance, spreading the flower on its back to the sky.   
"It's gonna use Solarbeam!" Keira warned. The others seemed too preoccupied with their own fights to notice...   
...but seemed to be moving together?   
The Ivysaur almost laughed. The stupid humans! They were presenting a single target, so it could take them out in one attack! The bulb on it's flower began to glow, as energy soared through its body, radiated into the air...   
And then released in a beam of incredible proportions!   
Second only to the ultra-destructive Hyper Beam, the legendary blast of heat and light energy that spewed from the glowing flower was many times Ivysaur's length in diameter and was virtually unstoppable, unblockable and impossible to survive unscathed. But at the last second, Liam dropped underground, Keira pulled herself up on a tree with a vine, Meowth jumped onto James's leg and James swung out of the way on a half-invisible rope...   
And Ivysaur realised how it had been tricked as the beam engulfed the other pokemon they'd been fighting... Their shadows were visible in the beam for a moment as it flashed past, before blurring and vanishing as the pokemon were vaporised, and the beam continuing without even slowing down...   
Ivysaur's last thought before it was crushed between James flying in from above and Liam slamming up from below was that the attack would continue far enough to warn someone of their prescence... 

~-~-~-~

A steady hum grew in the distance, and two figures carefully sneaking through a deserted street of a very small town - almost a village - looked around, wondering what it could be. Suddenly a house not far away exploded as a beam of energy slammed through it with enough force to level any structure. One of them swiftly tackled the other out of the path of the beam, and they recieved only minor burns as the attack shot by, still far too close for comfort...   
They let out their long-held breath as the attack finally faded, then stiffened as cries of alarm and confusion went up all through the town. As the pokemon charged out from and into every little alley to find the source of the destruction, they hastily made their exit - heading the direction the massive beam had emerged from...   
The Ivysaur's dying wish had been granted, but not in the way it had imagined... 

~-~-~-~

The quintet marched on, Jessica setting a cracking pace. She'd hung around only long enough to check that the Ivysaur was dead before continuing.   
Since the incident they'd been steadily traveling north, and thankfully they'd encountered only stray 'wild' pokemon and the occasional band, defeating all with ease. Jess now seemingly had no problem taking out pokemon, but she was beginning to scare the others - she had become almost as hard and ruthless as Liam. All she seemed to care about was killing Ash. James felt she would wear out of it soon, since he'd gone through a similar phase when Jessie had died at the fangs of the Ekans, but the others weren't so sure.   
They'd managed to convince her to go with them on this search the amulets insisted on, saying she was going to do a whole lot of good if Ash killed her. She was electricity-weak, after all...   
But she pressed on, often leaving the other four to catch up... resting little and grudgingly... she was killing herself mentally, and through that physically. But she didn't notice, and brushed off the others when they attempted to stop her, even Suikun...   
It wasn't long before the others, exhausted from the battle just had along with the long walk they'd had beforehand - not to mention a couple of other battles they'd been in recently - decided to slump down for a quick rest. Jess, who had been several metres ahead, snorted when she realised they had stopped and continued on. They waited until she was out of earshot, then began talking about what they'd done...   
"I'm beginning to wonder whether that was such a good idea..." James moaned, for the hundrenth time since they'd done the dream sequence on Jess.   
"It's a little late now. And if we tell her it was only us, that'll leave her worse off than before _and_ pissed off at us..." Keira pointed out.   
"So we've just gotta hope she calms down a little..."   
Nobody could think of a suitable answer for this, and they lay in silence, thinking... Even Liam looked worried. Keira had teased him about actually showing emotion some time earlier, and he'd flushed and sworn angrily that he was concerned about the mission, not Jess herself. They weren't sure what to believe.   
For several minutes they sat in thought. Meowth opened his mouth to break the uncomfortable silence...   
...and was cut off by an ear-splitting shriek!   
Even from where they sat, the cold hit them like an arctic breeze. They looked at each other for a moment, then as one leapt up and ran off to where they'd last seen their ally. 

~-~-~-~

Jess struggled violently, but it was useless. The vines around her were incredibly tight, and she realised now it probably hadn't been a good idea to freeze them and solidify the prison around her. Quite frankly, she couldn't move.   
Beneath her, several pokemon were frozen solid, many more shivering and soaked and almost all slipping on the icy veneer she'd covered the ground with. The Venusaur which had her in it's grip certainly didn't look happy about the freezing of the vines that it had wrapped around the human they'd ambushed. But it was worth it, just for capturing the icy witch.   
The frozen cocoon was shaking back and forth alarmingly, but the Venusaur had wrapped all of his vines around it, and then the bug pokemon that followed had covered it liberally with string shot. There was little chance of her breaking out. And the pokemon knew it.   
They were celebrating.   
The pokemon - mostly grass and bug types - were yelling of their victory, shooting attacks into the air, wrapped up in their elation of having caught one of the fabled super-powerful humans that had been scything through their ranks like a hot knife through butter.   
Too wrapped up to think about the others.   
Their joy was cut short as a half-transperant blade flew through the air, followed by a series of razor-sharp leaves, and slashed with incredible accuracy the majority of the vines being used to hold the frozen cocoon. Not prepared and shocked, the Venusaur's immediate reaction was to withdraw all the vines, and in the process drew the huge thing right down onto it's flower, half crushing it. It roared in pain and tried to flick the thing away from it, but with it's weakened vine strength only managed to land it a couple feet from it's huge head.   
Meowth jumped in and slashed the remaining vines from Jess, and then set to attacking some of the smaller pokemon about. Liam and Keira swung into the battle while James ran for Jess, since the inconsiderate pokemon hadn't thought to give her any breathing space... or had simply wanted her dead, not captured.   
With several careful slashes, he managed to clear enough of the frozen mat of vines to reveal her head. It hung limply - she was unconcious from oxygen deprivation - but apart from that she seemed fine.   
After making sure, James jumped into the battle with the rest of them. This was a slightly harder battle than usual - more pokemon of greater power - and they were actually holding their own...   
Meowth was frantically Fury Swiping both a Tangela and a Raticate, neither of which could get close enough to the whirling storm of claws and teeth that was the small cat pokemon to attack. The Tangela had lost several of it's innumerable vines already, and the Raticate was sporting several heavy scars. The three humans stood back to back - although Keira had to be careful not to hit Liam with any stray elemental power - and unleashed blasts on any open target that they might be fairly good against...   
The pokemon were having trouble attacking the trio, between Liam's rock slabs, James's Barrier, and Keira's tangled mats of vines... But a Graveler with a little more sense than the others suddenly broke out and rolled threateningly towards Meowth...   
Meowth managed to see it coming just in time and kicked the Sandshrew into it's path before leaping away. The pokemon didn't even slow as the Sandshrew was reduced to fine gravel under it's incredible weight.   
The more nimble Meowth managed to easily avoid the Graveler, but the other pokemon had caught on and more of them were leaving the impossible battle against the three ultra-powerful humans to take on Meowth.   
"Guys! Help!" Meowth found himself guarding against far too many pokemon. A Beedrill scored a hit on the back of his head, knocking him out, and was about to finish it when a flying blade split it's thin, fragile body in two.   
"Nobody does that to Meowth." James stated vengefully, watching the leg half collapse and the upper buzz and slash weakly, before the red glowing eyes faded.   
The pokemon soon forgot about the helpless enemy Meowth below them as they were beseiged by the humans around them. It was a hopeless battle - the humans were enraged at the near-death of two of their friends, and more powerful than any of the pokemon. It wasn't long before most of them were hanging limply from various branches by vines, buried in pits, or simply cut or bludgeoned to death.   
They glanced around to make sure they were all taken out, then collapsed in relief.   
"Phew... that was a close one." James mumbled, setting Meowth against a tree.   
"Maybe that'll teach Jess not to run ahead in future?"   
"And that'll probably bring up yet another problem."   
As one, they all looked to where Jess's body lay, still trussed in the frozen vines...   
Or where it had lain a few moments ago!   
They looked around frantically before spotting the icy cocoon dragging across the ground between the trees, before flashing out of sight. With a sigh of exasperation, they jumped up in chase.   
They were nearly out of sight of the area when James suddenly stopped. The other two ran ahead without noticing. He looked both ways, trying to make a decision, cursed wildly under his breath, and as fast as he could ran back and scooped up Meowth's still-comatose body, before running once again towards the others... 

~-~-~-~ 

Even weighed down by the rather heavy ice block, the Fearow was making remarkably good time. The rocks and leaves that had skimmed by it had done wonders for it's speed. It was flying rather low because of it's load, but was still getting away from the humans. Slowly, ever so slowly, but surely. The Pokemon kept one thought in its mind: Wouldn't Ash be pleased if he was brought this trophy?   
But the Fearow knew it's fate. It's wings were tiring. It wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer. Wasn't there a patrol in this area... maybe if it called?   
The bugling cry turned into a shriek of pain as a sharp rock slammed into one wing. It managed to steady itself after a quick dive - there didn't appear to be any bones broken, but it hurt, and reduced the Fearow's already-failing endurance further... One more hit would probably take it out.   
But then, a cry in reply from below! The bird gasped in relief and dived towards the sound, and didn't see the flash of Razor Leaves... aimed for the vines by which it was holding the human, which it had dived straight into.   
The leaves slashed through feather and flesh like they weren't there; one strike nicked it's long, thin, _vulnerable_ neck... and the rest was history.   
Fighting the blackness that threatened to overwhelm, the bird tried as hard as it could to ignore the pain and weakness as blood dripped and poured from various wounds and keep gliding... keep going and _hold on_, no matter what...   
It's dangling load caught on a tree, and the weakened Fearow could take it no more - it swung down in a slow arc and slammed into the ground with force enough to break most of the hollow, fragile bones in it's body.   
A long creak, several heavy cracks in succession, then a soft 'Whump' indicated the cocooned human dropping from the tree to land some way away...   
Nothing happened for a couple of minutes, then a rustling of bushes nearby indicated someone approaching... 

~-~-~-~ 

"Damn it!" Liam cried upon spotting the mangled Fearow carcass. Keira flipped out of a tree and stood next to him. The bird was well and truly dead, but there was no sign of Jess.   
"Now James is gone too!" Liam complained. Keira began searching the area thoroughly, and suddenly yelled in suprise.   
"Look! She was dropped from here."   
Liam ran over. "Are you sure it was her?"   
Keira picked through a pile of broken foilage and presented a sparkling, frozen piece of vine about an inch long. "I'd say so."   
"Then where is she now?"   
"She can't have rolled or anything... could she?"   
"No. Some more pokemon came." He pointed to some heavy footprints in the soft grass and dirt... some broken branches further on. They'd been in a hurry.   
Keira ran, following the footprints, before throwing a vine up to wrap around a branch, pulling herself up. She shouted back an back at Liam. "Meet you there. We'll find James later."   
Liam gave chase eagerly, but the hunt would not be over for some time yet... 


	11. Captures and Chases - Chapter 4 (9)

Untitled9 The amulet-induced 'Dreamscape' is a very different place when entered by way of unconsciousness, instead of merely by sleep. And, all in all, it is not nearly as pleasant.   
Suikun was finding this out. The hard way.   
The air - if it could be called such - appeared to have the consistency of water. No, that wasn't an accurate description... Suikun was a water pokemon, and perfectly at home in the substance. This was impeding even her movement. Maybe treacle would be a better description. Moving was painfully slow, and required a lot of effort... and even breathing in the air was difficult. Suikun guessed this was due to the cause of her human's unconsciousness - oxygen deprivation.   
And manipulation of the realm was virtually impossible. Indeed, she'd tried to use it several times to clear the air, and to no avail.   
Her vision was fogged, it was difficult to see any distance whatsoever. She hadn't yet determined if this was true, or an optical illusion, or simply a problem with her eyes; the air was always crystal clear here - indeed, one could literally see forever into the distance.   
Unless someone had created something to obstruct it. Which left only one option, one thing that could have happened... Jess.   
Jess was causing this. Maybe unintentionally, maybe unwillingly, but it was happening. And there was only one way that she was going to stop it - wake Jess up.   
A piercing scream rang through the place. Suikun shuddered. There was the last thing, and possibly the worst of all... Jess's cries.   
Whatever was happening, Jess wasn't enjoying it. Ever since they'd ended up here, Suikun had had to listen to endless screams, sobs and cries for help, thrown out by Jess. But they didn't have a specific direction, they echoed through the scape like the voice of god... it almost seemed to be a mental thing, not a physical. Suikun couldn't tell whether she was hearing it in her mind or her ears, but she was sure of one thing - it was slowly but surely driving her insane.   
"Jess, where are you?" She cried in frustration, knowing it was useless - even if the sound wasn't immediately swallowed up by the heavy air, she couldn't tell in which direction Jess's voice would come from, and there was certainly no landmarks in the foggy eternity.   
As expected, the Guardian got no more answer than another sob echoing through her mind, adding to her frustration, grinding away at sanity and patience...   
She spat a Hydro Pump to vent her anger, and watched it dissipate and dissolve in the heavy air. Her Blizzard attack barely stirred the air, and the icy energy fell to simply vanish.   
And then, an Ice Beam.   
The concentrated cold energy slashed through the treacle-thick air as if it weren't there, suprising Suikun as it arced off into infinity and out of sight. Of course, an energy attack wouldn't be affected. This was an interesting discovery... but could she turn it to her advantage?   
Icebeam was the only energy attack she knew... wait, or was it?   
She grinned a wolfish grin, though nobody was there to see it, and powered up a rare move of the water-ice element... and then fired, the rainbow light of Aurora Beam lighting the dark fog, then pushing it away. So it wasn't an optical illusion...   
The cone of fog she had pushed away showed nothing, and as the attack faded the encircling, choking fog slowly seeped back through the thick air to fill the gap. Now was the hard part; she had to find Jess. Who could be anywhere, as the dreamscape was technically infinite and made little distinction to direction - up and down were as likely and indistinguishable as forward, left right or back... and time had no real meaning here, warped back and forth freely, probably even more so in this strange new scape...   
The task ahead of Suikun made the traditional needle in a haystack business look downright trivial.   


~-~-~-~

  
It seemed like everything was going wrong.   
James had Meowth's comatose body in one arm. The pokemon, by all rights, should have woken up by now. Or at least stirred. And James was beginning to fear a very strong possibility.   
Meowth had been poisoned.   
Normally the effects of such an attack would be visible and obvious, but one heard stories of special cases... strange pokemon venoms, mutated in some way, with different effects... Some that would kill instantly, some that would not show their effects for some time, until it was too late... Some of the stranger stories talked of poisons that would destroy them mentally while leaving their bodies essentially unharmed, disable attacks, or cause strange physical irregularities.   
Meowth was showing no signs of physical damage... yet. James had no real proof that the pokemon was suffering any more than a fairly major concussion, but paranoia was eating away at his not-so-great resolve. Sati - and the prospect of finding the others and a way to cure him - was all that was currently keeping him going.   
He'd already lost one of his best friends to poison in this cruel new world. He didn't know what he'd do if he lost the other...   
His search was becoming as futile as Suikun's - he was completely lost in the semi-forest area. He had to find them... And it wasn't going to be easy, since they were trying to find someone who lay in virtually the opposite direction to him.   
He sighed, and kept moving. 

~-~-~-~

Another Aurora Beam blasted through the fog, taking longer than it had before. Suikun had made a discovery that made the job seem a little easier - the fog was thicker in one direction, taking longer to blast through. While this made her general job harder, she guessed that it meant that Jess was in that direction.   
She shot a thin, more concentrated beam to see how thick it was ahead, and watched as it penetrated further, but slowed, until the fog was so thick it simply couldn't make it go further...   
A sob echoed through the scape. Suikun looked into what she currently regarded as 'up', and whispered "I'm coming, Jess..."   
She bounded forward as best she could through the treacle-air, ignoring the fatigue which was building up. You weren't supposed to get tired in this place - indeed, the idea was that you got less tired as you stayed here, as you did with sleep - but it just wasn't working...   
Another wide-spread Aurora beam barely penetrated the fog, and she had to keep it up for some time to actually see ahead. She ran as quickly as she could ahead, while keeping the attack running, before having to stop and try to get over a hacking fit from using the attack too long. As the fog once again closed in, another groan could be heard echoing through the fog...   
But Suikun's spirits suddenly soared... it could have been her imagination, but she thought she'd heard the sound. Not in the all-encompassing half-psychic manner which she had been for god knows how long, but ahead and to the left, and slightly upwards...   
Suikun unleashed a concentrated Aurora beam in that direction, and waited an eternity for the ultra-thick fog to fade... but just before she could keep the attack up no longer...   
FLASH! Something moved! Suikun gave a howl of success and leapt towards it.   
She wasn't sure which took longer - the endless search she'd endured earlier, or the time it took her to move at the slow-motion pace towards the movement. She'd found her at last, and now both of them could get out of this nightmare...   
And so was quite suprised when something slashed out of the fog and hit her with enough power to knock her aside, although she managed to regain her balance before hitting the 'ground'. Another came, in the slow-motion that was caused by the air but it was too close already... Suikun managed to avoid most of the blow, but it still hit her on the long crest that extended from the back of her head, twisting her head painfully. As a third appeared, she managed to spin far enough to grab it in her fang-filled mouth, chewing it in two with little difficulty.   
A pained, angered roar filled the area, and Suikun was caught off-guard as a heavy weight flattened her from above. She looked up and saw Jess there, wrapped up head-to-toe. She was struggling hard, and somehow managed to get her head free, and caught sight of her guardian.   
"Suikun, help!" She screamed, before her face was re-wrapped and she was pulled out of sight. She was being attacked by something! Suikun hadn't considered that possibility, and she cursed herself for not thinking of it.   
Suikun let loose another Aurora beam in hope of seeing the attacker, and recoiled in shock as she found herself less than ten feet from the leering face of a giant Venusaur. Having presented herself as a target, she quickly found herself contending with several vines.   
The slow-motion battle was frustrating and exhausting. Despite the low speed, they still packed quite a punch. Every time she would bite one in half or tear it out, several more would take its place. She caught occasional flashes of Jess, and more-than-occasional flashes of her screams.   
Eventually she decided she'd had enough, and unleashed an icebeam where she'd last seen the huge Venusaur's body. Another roar echoed through the scape, and the vines retreated.   
Taking the advantage, Suikun leapt powerfully at the area she'd hit, both paws finding their way through the cradling vines to slam into the creature's frozen face.   
Another Icebeam she aimed straight ahead, where she knew the Venusaur's flower to be. She followed it up with a powerful Body Slam, and the plant made fragile by the ice shattered, weakening the mutant pokemon no end.   
Suikun fired a low-powered Aurora beam to determine the location of the vines, and began biting them off. As a desperate measure, the half-dead Venusaur thumped her with Jess, knocking her off... but in the process lost it's prize, too many of the holding vines having been removed to steady the human. Suikun aimed one more full-powered Icebeam at the pokemon before setting to roughly ripping the vines off Jess.   
Finally free, Jess got up, although slowly as she couldn't do otherwise. She shook herself, stretched, then closed her eyes.   
"Hey, what are you doing?" Suikun asked, as the human began to glow blue. The icy cold power could be felt, making the area feel like a freezer...   
Then suddenly, she snapped her eyes open, and they glowed... a solid blue, with no iris or pupil, and she pulled her arms back and threw them out, somehow not feeling the restrictive effects of the strange atmosphere...   
And a mass of pulsating ice/water energy flew out, manifesting in a storm of blades... Suikun looked away as the mutant Venusaur was shredded like lettuce... but couldn't do it fast enough, and so was forced to watch at least a short time as the blades bit home...   
And then almost sprained her neck as suddenly the air returned to normal. Jess didn't move from that position a moment, just breathed deeply... then looked at Suikun.   
"Thanks."   
"Thank god that's over." Agreed Suikun. "Look, you've got to get back... The others are probably still lo-" Everything disappeared. 

~-~-~-~

_-oking for you. _Suikun finished.   
Jess slowly yawned, and tried to get up... but found herself still resricted by the vines. At least her head was free, though.   
The dim light flickered, leading to her next thought - _Where the hell am I?_   
A quick survey of the surroundings revealed she was in a cave. A further examination showed a Pinsir, a Sandslash and a Tangela nearby. The Sandslash was holding a torch apparently constructed of a stalagmite wrapped around with vines from the Tangela. Both the other pokemon were sitting well away from the torch.   
They hadn't noticed her awakening yet, and she started to try to work her way out of the frozen cocoon.   
In a couple of minutes she'd managed to squeeze out a fair way, but suddenly the edge cracked, and bits of frozen vine and String Shot tinkled on the floor. The three pokemon halted their conversation. She was in a darkened section of the cave, opposite to them. The Sandslash silently waved the Tangela to investigate, and it reluctantly obeyed.   
Jess lay as still as she could, still half-encased in the frozen vines. As the Tangela shuffled over on it's huge feet, she smiled imperceptively, opening her eyes just the slightest crack to watch...   
The Tangela waddled up to try to examine the human, and looked at the seemingly still-unconcious face. It got quite a suprise as the eyes burst open, and the mouth split into an evil-looking grin.   
The Sandslash, who had gone back to talking to the Pinsir, somehow heard the tiny sound of the icebeam taking effect. It only needed to see the firelight sparkle off _two_ reflective, frozen mats of vines instead of one, before immediately shoving the torch into the ground, extinguishing it.   
Jess hadn't been expecting this, and froze, ready to use her attacks at any moment to let the others do the same. Hurried movement noises echoed throughout the cave. Jess couldn't see a thing in the completely dark cave.   
Something sharp poked into her back, and she inhaled sharply. She started to power up a quick attack...   
"Wouldn't do that, human." A gravelly voice hissed by her ear. The Sandslash, she guessed.   
"And why not?"   
"Try it, and I'll kill you. And even if you survive, you would never escape." It smirked. "Humans can't dig."   
Jess suddenly realised the terrible error she had been about to make. This was seriously not good. The Sandslash held her life in it's hands. Or claws.   
She relaxed, giving up. She could almost _feel_ the smug grin of the pokemon as it removed its claw from her back.   
More movement could be heard, then sparks flew suddenly from the other side of the cave. The torch was quickly lit, showing the Sandslash rubbing its claws together to spark.   
It picked up the torch between two claws, and waved it towards the human, who was looking thouroughly depressed. With a satisfied grin, it walked up and carefully held out the torch to her.   
"We're moving. Don't try anything, human - Ash won't mind if you're dead."   
The pokemon headed for a wall, and started rapidly sawing through the fairly-solid earth like loose sand. The Pinsir waved her in, and she followed the ground-type dejectedly, the Pinsir taking up the rear.   
_How on earth are we gonna get out of this one? _Suikun moaned. 

~-~-~-~

  
Liam suddenly stopped, too quickly for his equilibrium to compensate, and nearly fell over. Keira, who had been slightly ahead of him and swinging through the trees, didn't notice and kept going.   
"Keira! Stop!" He called.   
"What do you mean stop?" She called back, but she swung back to stand next to him.   
"Look at this." He pointed to a spot on the ground where footprints clustered. They seemed to be running around in circles or something.   
"So? They might have been a little confused. The footprints continue that way."   
"But not all of them."   
Keira looked closer. Indeed, there were somewhat fewer footprints continuing on than where they were now. She looked confused.   
Liam put his hand near the middle of the bunch of footprints. "I think they may of dug a hole here. Shit!"   
Keira squatted next to him. "But some of them kept going. We don't know whether she's underground or not."   
Liam swore some more. "I guess we'll have to split up."   
_Jess is in this general direction... _Carnak spoke up. _Or at least Suikun is. I dunno whether they'd take off the amulet..._   
"Hmm..."   
_Go with her, and if we get close enough we can tell whether she's underground or not..._   
"Let's move." Liam said suddenly, assuming Keira had recieved the same message from her guardian. A moment later, the two of them were gone. 

~-~-~-~

It was a never-ending, monotonous sequence. The Sandslash dug away at the wall ahead, she plodded along behind holding the torch, and the Pinsir guarded her. She knew she could take both of them out in a split second, even if it meant using the flaming torch against the bug-type.   
But no... she couldn't break out. There was an off chance that Liam might find her, but she wasn't going to take that.   
All that was keeping her from falling too far into depression to ever actually break out was watch the Sandslash, who was becoming quite paranoid. It'd keep glancing back, to make sure she wasn't going to try anything. The Pinsir was staring at her with a mixture of anger and fear, too. She didn't help either of them, giving the Sandslash occasional menacing or smug looks, like she was getting ready for something, (no matter what she felt inside) and occasionally waving the torch near the giant bug behind her.   
Soon it began to slow down the digging. The Sandslash was trying to keep an eye on her the entire time, but couldn't move very well under that condition...   
Eventually its paranoia got the best of it, and he stopped. "Amulet-holder... you can cause sleep. On yourself. Do it."   
"Wha-"   
_How does it know that? _Suikun snapped. _It's true, yeah, but he shouldn't know..._   
"I know you can, human. Do it. Or I'll put you into a sleep you won't wake up from."   
_Alright... tell him we will..._   
Jess seemed rather shocked, but nodded. She felt Suikun bringing the sleep on... felt herself collapse, her senses fading away...   
The last thing she heard was "Don't think about waking up... Pinsir will be holding you. If you give any indication, you'll be snapped in half." Before the real world was replaced with the Dreamscape.   
Suikun was waiting for her, looking rather worried. "If they know that... then that probably means they've got one of us prisoner already."   


~-~-~-~


	12. Captures and Chases - Chapter 5 (10)

Untitled10a Jess, Keira and Liam sat around a fire, sometime later. Keira was slowly munching on a Pidgeotto wing; the other two had finished their bird some time ago. They ate in silence, each contemplating the hardships they - and the others - had gone through to get to this place. Jess rubbed her neck often - it still ached from where it had hung limply from the icy prison. Her back wasn't in top condition either - being carried by a Pinsir isn't the most comfortable way to travel.   
They had agreed to have a rest - this had been an exhaustive episode for them all - then search for their final missing comrade. Keira finally put aside the remaining scraps of the wing, and their eyes met. They seemed to be actively avoiding talking, but they each knew what the other was implying.   
Jess pointed at the fire, and it was promptly extinguished. The three of them silently lay down, and closed their eyes... and seconds later were getting up again in the blank void of the Dreamscape.   
This was what they'd been waiting for - seeing each other's stories as they'd traveled... Soon all three of them were lost in seas of each others' memory... 

~-~-~-~

"Sorry, don't have the time..." Liam called, bursting into and through an extremely suprised group of pokémon, sending a Vileplume spinning and accidentally kicking a Weepinbell into a tree.   
"Love to stay and chat..." Keira added as she swung down all Tarzan-style, while hooking an Ivysaur's flower between her feet... "But places to go, friends to save..."   
The unharmed of the group looked on in shock as the Ivysaur was thrown in the air, and fell upside-down to the ground, as the two humans vanished into the forest beyond. They stayed unmoving for a moment, then with a shrill yell of protest charged after them.   
"That went better than expected." Liam called on, running hard.   
"Keep this up and we'll catch her in no... whoops!" The branch she was swinging on broke, and she only just managed to save herself in time by throwing up another vine... But her knees were scraped bloody as she skidded across the ground.   
Liam slowed down, and ran back. "You okay?"   
"Keep going, I'll catch up..."   
"Yeah, just like James is..." Liam looked doubtful.   
"Look, our first priority is getting Jess out of their hands, right? We can find each other later."   
Liam didn't look thrilled at leaving her behind too, but turned and ran on anyway. Keira pushed herself up painfully and went to find some of the right plants... one couldn't be a grass master for years without learning some herbal remedies... 

~-~-~-~

Suikun had worked herself up into a fit about one of the amulet-holders being captured. Jess was somewhat more concerned that _she_ was the amulet-holder being captured.   
"For god's sakes, Suikun! Who cares!"   
"You should! Every one of them is precious! Ash has millions of troops, we probably don't even have a hundred!"   
"And what can we do about it? Wouldn't it be a better idea to come up with a way to prevent him getting _two_?!" She said, gesturing to herself.   
That seemed to shock Suikun into silence for a moment, at least. As they both considered their next move, they realized they could hear the voices of the pokémon faintly, echoing though the void.   
"Make sure you hold her tight..." Came the Sandslash's voice. "If she starts to wake, squeeze her. Don't kill her, unless you have to..."   
"Well, that's a relief at least..." Jess muttered, as the Pinsir grunted its agreement.   
"It's a good thing they told us that... we're nearing the surface, and I'm not sure what we'd do otherwise..."   
Both of them immediately cried out in protest, but it was lost on the pokémon in the next realm of consciousness over...   
"Nearing the surface... it tricked me!"   
"I didn't think he'd do that..." Suikun said thoughtfully, but anger could still be heard in her voice. "If he's planning to surface, he's feeling pretty confident... he'll be able to move faster, but he'll be out in the open. Maybe he's gonna pass us on to some other pokemon?"   
"Just great... we'll probably be at Ash's place before they even work out which direction I'm in..."   
"Put a little more faith in your friends." Suikun bent down, and nuzzled Jess's downcast face up until they were looking eye-to-eye. "After all, we can always tell where the others are. You know, sense other amulets."   
Jess perked up a bit. "You can tell where they are now?"   
Suikun looked a little sheepish... "Well, no, actually... They're somewhere off in that direction." She tossed her head back and to the right. "But that's not much use, is it? We don't know what direction that is in the real world, and distance is all weird here, so nup."   
"Got my hopes up for a moment there..."   
"Don't feel down... they'll find us before Ash does, don't you worry..." 

~-~-~-~

It wasn't long after that before a claw broke the surface. Just the point at first, but then as more earth crumbled into the hole, the spiky crest of the Sandslash was visible...   
It was caught somewhat by suprise as something large grabbed it by a couple of spikes and hauled it to the surface. It yelled in shock and suprise, but was cut off as its face hit the rocky ground.   
Sandslashes are a hardy breed, however, and it slowly got up, not much more than a slightly flattened snout to show for it. It looked around for the hidden attacker, but it was unnecessary...   
"Where is she?"   
It spun around, seeing a shadowy form in the trees some distance away, one that it easily identified. It sneered. _Human..._   
But no human could have moved that fast... it chanced a glance behind, and two long, rocky hands sunk into the ground.   
_Another one of the amulet-holders! Come for his friend!_   
The tall, thin human strode confidently from the shadows, and the pokemon knew he was doomed. He had no threat to hang over the head of this one... or did he?   
The Sandslash leapt backwards and curled up into a spiky ball, rolling back towards the hole. Liam shouted in annoyance and broke into a run after it. The Pinsir had popped up its head to see what had happened to its partner, and in one smooth move the Sandslash unrolled, snatched her out of the Pinsir's claws and held her up for Liam to see, waving his claw threateningly near her neck.   
"One step closer, human, and she dies." The pokemon gave the ultimatum. Liam skidded to a stop, a good twenty feet from the pokemon.   
"Now, you're going to turn around and leave peacefully..." The Sandslash's words died away, he didn't look like he was going to do anything of the sort, but actually... confident. The Sandslash moved to an even more threatening position against the unconscious hostage... but couldn't move its arm!   
Frantically looking behind as far as the stiff skin and spikes would allow, the pokemon saw a heavy rock column holding his arm back, and before he could see more several more rose up around him, and carried him into the air...   
"Not a good move, pokemon."   
The Sandslash was silent, except for grunts of effort and frustration as it tried to escape the spires it was stuck between. Liam gave an evil-looking grin, held out a hand, and began closing it into a fist; as he did so, the spires began to lean together, crushing the pokemon.   
It screamed in agony as the life was crushed out of it, breaking off spikes... one of its claws, caught in a shrunken gap, simply broke off as it tried to flail.   
It waved around with the other claw and hit one of them with an Earthquake attack. It was enough to break the column and give the pokemon a little breathing room, though not enough to escape.   
Liam grinned wider, and loosened the grip a bit in anticipation for the final crush... He slowly prepared himself, then...   
PTTSSEEEEWWWW! A huge blast of bright yellowish-green energy slammed into his side, catching him completely off guard and propelling him through several trees. When the Solar Beam had slowed enough to not have enough force to break through the next tree, it simply exploded, lighting the late-afternoon sky up like a small bomb...   
Several more grass and bug-type pokemon ran/flew into the clearing - the pokemon who they'd run past had given chase, and finally caught up. Two Glooms and a Vileplume collapsed, having exhasted all their combined powers unleashing the super-powered Solar Beam.   
"Help!" Gasped the Sandslash, still stuck up in the rocky trap. Several of the pokemon complied, some of the grass pulling with their vines while Beedrills hacked at the rock spires. It wasn't long before the Sandslash tumbled from where it had been entrapped, quickly scooped up by an Ivysaur.   
But when they slowly lowered him to the ground, they found it wasn't much use - one leg had been completely destroyed, crushed almost beyond hope of repair. The other wasn't in very good condition either, nor was the rest of its body. They left him to lie on his back for the moment.   
"Riiight!" A Victreebell took charge, squealing in it's painfully high voice. At its instruction, a couple of pokemon took up the immobile bodies of the Sandslash and human, and several more wandered off in search of Liam.   
"Watch her..." The ground-type grunted through the pain. "If she wakes... squeeze... too strong..."   
The Ivysaur nodded, and began to wander off. The Tangela holding the Sandslash followed. But both stopped when a cry of suprise was heard from where the pokemon had gone to find the other human.   
Fearing the worst, the pokemon tensed themselves. But a little Oddish came speeding out.   
"Gone! He's gone! Not a sign of him!"   
They all burst into a fit of conversation. Could the attack have completely vaporised him? It probably would've to any pokemon, let alone a human, but these amulet-bearers were rumoured to have powers surpassing those of any bar Ash himself...   
"One less for Ash..."   
"One's better than none, let's take this one in!"   
"But what if it's alive?"   
"It'll be too injured to attack... nothing could stand up to that!"   
After a fairly large argument, they began to move... but a small earthquake stopped them in their tracks. They all looked fearfully around for the source...   
A shrill scream sounded. A Vileplume was struggling, but was being pulled underground, by something a lot stronger than it was. The pokemon's cylindrical body meant that it was pulled under fairly easily into the hole, up to the flower, where it stuck.   
It's shreiks still sounded, muffled by the earth. The flower trembled, its petals starting to edge up, as if whatever it was was trying to pull the entire flower under along with the pokemon. But Vileplume flowers were very strong, and that would be impossible... right?   
The pokemon around simply watched on in horror at the flapping petals. Suddenly they stopped, along with the screaming... but then they flapped up powerfully once, and another scream sounded. Whatever it was was giving sharp tugs now... and then there was a tearing sound, one last dying scream, and the flower flopped aside, sans Vileplume.   
The others simply continued to look on in horror. One of them managed to pick up the courage to speak. "Tha... that's the one who did the Solarbeam..."   
They saw the hand this time, as it emerged from a rapidly-forming hole to latch around a Gloom's leg. It was pulled under, but not before releasing the horrible gas that Glooms are infamous for. The other pokemon coughed and choked, and by the time the thick gas had cleared the Gloom was nowhere in sight. But it wasn't long before it was shot from the hole again, tiny legs and arms torn off, flower scratched beyond recognition, and impaled through the eye and out the other side with a long Stalagmite.   
The third of the Solarbeam team had the sense to start moving, and so the hand missed as it reached up to grab the other Gloom. But instead the hole grew larger, and the hand pulled up the rest of the arm, then the body.   
Liam was looking rather the worse for wear. His clothes were blackened and crisp, as was his flesh, burnt very badly by the super-charged Solarbeam. He was panting heavily, and shaking, with his face contorted in pain.   
Wait, no... that wasn't just pain. That was anger.   
"That... really... really... hurt." He growled through gritted teeth. He made a slow slicing line with his hands, lining up the Gloom... and suddenly the earth split in two, leaving the terrified pokemon in a crevice it couldn't hope to escape. It made an attempt, and miraculously managed to grab one of the edges... hanging on with its tiny arms...   
Liam simply smiled mercilessly, and brought his hands together. All the pokemon winced as the fissure snapped back together. A little bit of green, sap-like blood began pooling around the area where the weed pokemon had last been...   
Liam seemed rather satisfied with this result, and stopped panting so hard. "Now... if you hand over the girl... you might not suffer the same fate..."   
The pokemon sized this offer up. He was far more powerful than any of them... but he was injured, outnumbered and with an elemental disadvantage...   
Several grass-types let loose with Razor Leaves, but they never came close to their target - Liam shot up on a pillar of rock not unlike those he'd used to trap the Sandslash, but somewhat thicker...   
It became a perilious balancing act as the injured rock master threw down rocks at the multitudinous grass-types as they fought back with Razor Leaf and Vine Whip. He unleashed an Earthquake to unbalance them, followed by a hefty rock, almost worthy of the title of boulder.   
The pokemon swarmed, but not all of them. The pokemon holding the Sandslash and Jess were wandering away as fast as they could under their heavy burdens. Liam spotted them, and threw a fairly large rock in their direction - but his aim was off due to his worry of hitting Jess, and only managed to hit the Sandslash, knocking off its arm, shoulder, and part of its lower jaw. It screamed in pain.   
The other pokemon were starting to demand his full attention again, Razor Leaf attacks hitting as often as not and Vine Whips coming ever closer to toppling him off.   
It was far too late by the time he saw the blinding, bright light of the Solarbeam being charged.   
The Victreebell unleashed the attack, not towards the human but halfway up the spire he was perched on. The entire rock structure exploded, and Liam wasn't fast enough to leap off. He fell, battered by the rocks as they flew around him, before landing painfully on the ground, on his arm. The pain bloomed, flying through his body in waves until it became one with the pain he'd already endured from the last attacks... And a heavy chunk of rock landed right on his chest, winding him and furthering the pain, possibly breaking ribs...   
Another one clapped him on the forehead, and everything went black... 

~-~-~-~ 

Keira was very suprised to find the pokemon scooping up not only Jess, but a charred and bruised figure that looked remarkably like Liam. They hadn't thought of that possiblity. Maybe they'd become a little overconfident after beating so many pokemon...   
She crouched on a sturdy branch, silently counting the pokemon. Hmm... she might be able to win, if she managed to wake one of the others...   
No, wait... she smiled grimly as an idea formed inside her mind. The pokemon weren't that smart. She'd give them a row of bad luck they'd live to regret... 

~-~-~-~ 

Half an hour later, the pokemon were thouroughly confused, riddled with fear and completely demoralised.   
Not long after they'd set off with their two prizes, they'd discovered a number of pokemon missing from their number, which many swore had been there when they'd begun. A huge falling branch had killed one and crippled two. The foilage above seemed to have grown closer together, and the sunlight was blocked out - a terrible thing for any grass-type, who sucked their energy (not to mention the power for their ultimate attack) from the sun.   
Two more of their number disappeared shortly afterwards - this no-one could deny. All the pokemon were now keeping an eye on each other, to make sure nobody disappeared unnoticed again.   
Nothing had happened for ten minutes, then a Pinsir let out a shrill cry. Some sort of spike had embedded itself in the bug's foot - through the exoskeleton armour - and judging by the way he was slowing down, growing quiet and falling over, it had been poisoned.   
The Pinsir, weak to poison attacks, was dead within a minute.   
And now this. An entire huge tree had uprooted itself. Flung itself right on top of the rear ranks. At least three pokemon had been crushed; another two were half-stuck under the huge trunk; and now there was no doubt in the pokemon's mind that this was no freak accident, or set of.   
The remaining pokemon numbered six - A Pinsir carried Jess, an Ivysaur Liam, and a Tangela carried the Sandslash. A Vileplume, a Beedrill and a Weepinbell followed.   
But they weren't going anywhere, so scared were they. Keira laughed silently from her viewpoint, thinking of the pokemon hanging helplessly from vines back before, tied completely and many knocked out. The pokemon had never noticed.   
She picked a target. A long, thin thorn formed on the tree next to her, and she plucked it off.   
It had worked on the other one, she thought, gently touching the tip of it, coating it in poison. Taking very careful aim at the Pinsir so as not to hit the human it carried, she threw the missile.   
It hit the pokemon in its gaping mouth, embedding it in the back of its throat. The Pinsir choked and fell, and Jess tumbled as the claws relaxed.   
If the pokemon didn't know where she was from that, then they probably got the hint when vines snuck out and hooked Jess's sleeping form, dragging her into the trees.   
"Wake up!" Keira hissed in Jess's ear, shaking her. "C'mon, I need your help here!"   
Jess began to mumble and stir, but Keira's attention was torn when the Ivysaur started threatening to kill Liam. "Get down here, human!"   
Keira dropped, and faced the final five pokemon. Their eyes narrowed when they saw her, and they immediately started to attack.   
The Weepinbell acted first, unleashing a spray of Razor Leaves. Keira held up a hand to protect herself from the storm... and they parted around her, burying themselves in the trees and ground behind her.   
The pokemon were shocked beyond belief, but quickly rallied when they saw that she was just as suprised. The Tangela sent some of its innumerable vines to move towards her... and found that it simply couldn't move them any furthur. Keira, using her power over plantlife, was controlling their attacks.   
Jess quickly revelled in this newfound power. The Ivysaur panicked when its vines developed a mind of their own and deposited Liam behind Keira, before beginning to attack itself.   
The Tangela dumped its injured pokemon load and ran like hell. Keira's Vine Whip took care of the Weepinbell, throwing it heavily into a tree. Keira hoped the Vileplume would follow Tangela's example, but it had other ideas.   
It began absorbing solar energy, the centre of its huge flower glowing a brilliant yellow, fading to pure white. Keira's power over plant matter wouldn't stop this attack... But this would.   
The energy was unleashed, in a beam wider than either Keira or the 'plume was tall. It lasted some time, as the Vileplume expended all of its energy to take out this last arrogant human.   
When finally the blinding light faded, the pokemon looked up. It expected to see nothing but a long, burnt trail of destruction through the forest. What it saw was somewhat unexpected.   
Keira had countered the attack by beginning a Solarbeam of her own. All the energy had been absorbed, and Keira was glowing with power, giving her a somewhat angelic look.   
The Vileplume had no time to appreciate this, before its attack was thrown back in its face. It didn't last long.   
Keira slumped in relief. Finally, they'd saved Jess... now finally they could get on with things. It wasn't until she heard the tell-tale buzz that she realised she'd forgotten something.   
The Beedrill dove down in a deadly Twinneedle attack, with intent to run her through. She was too late to do anything, and it would have succeeded had a blast of ice not blown it across the field, freezing it in mid-flight. It shattered upon hitting a tree.   
Keira turned around to see Jess, yawning loudly. "Silly girl. I thought you were supposed to be the cautious one."   
Keira would have retorted rudely, but she was just too glad to see her friend was okay. 

~-~-~-~ 

"And then we patched Liam up. I happened to have a bottle of Burn heal in my beg, and while you're not perfect, you'll live."   
"We found a camping spot, and the rest is history."   
The three of them sat in the dreamscape, having finished with each other's memories. Liam didn't look physically injured in any way in this world, but he certainly wasn't looking pleased.   
"Oh, cheer up. At least we got back Jess." Keira said.   
"Now all we've got to do is find James again, and we'll be a full team." Carnak put in from the shadows. The three guardians had been watching the memories too, off to the side.   
"And I hope you won't be running off ahead again, Jess?" Suikun stared at her.   
Jess gave a smile, halfway between embarrassed and apologetic. "No, I promise, I've learnt my lesson..." Suikun nodded, satisfied, until she heard Jess mutter under her breath, "...mother."   
Suikun gave a shout of mock indignation, but whatever she was about to say or do next was cut off by a sudden image.   
_James wandered unseeingly through the forest, lost in greif. Meowth was dying, growing weaker by the second - he wouldn't last long now._   
_ Bushes rustled nearby. Someone was there! Somebody who could help! He stumbled as if drunk in the direction of the sound. A group of figures appeared in his sight; in his delirious state he didn't realise who they were, or heed his amulet's warning._   
_ "Help! Meowth... Poisoned... Death... Help him... help me..." His voice faded and he promptly collapsed. Suffice it to say the group of pokemon were quite suprised to have one of the ultra-powered humans they hunted deliever himself unconscious to their feet..._   
The image faded and was replaced by the dreamscape once again. Everyone sighed.   
"Great... Looks like you get to help us on this one, Jess..."   
"Yup... we've spent long enough in here. We don't know whether that's in the future, or a memory of James reaching us... let's get moving."   
The trio woke up, the dreamscape being replaced by the forest floor. Not long afterwards, there was nobody there - they were off on James's trail. 

~-~-~-~ 

Ash looked up at the huge being standing before him. It had changed much since the night it had destroyed a good section of Ash's castle, and now stood at   
attention, waiting for Ash's command.   
"You're the first in a line of ultra-powerful pokemon." Ash said. "And to test your worth, I want you to go out and find me those amulet-holding humans. The main   
group is floating around somewhere south of Fuschia right now, I believe."   
The huge creature nodded. "And when I find them?" It growled, in a voice so low it was barely audible.   
"I leave that to you." Ash grinned evilly. "Kill them if you want. Then hunt down the others. You've heard the reports, you know where they've been sighted..."   
"Yes, master." It nodded once again, and slowly left the room to hunt out the amulet-holding humans which were causing it's master so much greif.   
Ash watched as it left. "Well, that's that little problem taken care of. I'd like to see them get out of this one..."   
His laughter echoed out into the night... 


	13. A New Breed of Pokemon - Chapter 1 (11)

Untitled11 The three of them rushed through the trees, heading to where the amulets claimed to be sensing James. They'd learnt from last time, and were avoiding any pokemon patrols they saw - Keira had moved ahead to scout. They'd still stumbled upon one group, and had beaten them as quickly and soundly as they could, making sure they couldn't give chase, before moving on.   
The amulets gave directions, homing in on James's signal. He'd become seriously lost in the chase, by the distance he seemed to be from them. Unless the pokémon were moving him away from Jess and the others.   
Nobody wanted Meowth dead, or James captured. The pokémon would take Meowth along with them, either thinking he was James's hostage or suchlike and 'rescuing' him, or knowing him for the traitor to the species he was and taking him prisoner.   
They were drawing close... The amulets urged them on, they were within half a mile! Jess, upon hearing this, sped up suddenly, and Liam did likewise to keep up. Keira didn't notice until they'd drawn level with her. She turned down to Jess as she swung.   
"Careful! They could be anywhere around here! Whoa!"   
Keira's vine wrapped around nothing as the forest suddenly came to a halt. She managed to avoid falling down like she had the day before, landing on her feet and doing a spectacular skid. Jess and Liam skidded to a halt beside her.   
"Close one."   
"No kidding."   
They stared off into the distance, across the grassy plains. It was dotted with a tree here and there, but it wasn't anything compared to the forest behind them. The pokémon weren't in sight, and the grass made it hard to look for tracks - but they had the ultimate tracking device, and weren't hesitating to use it.   
They set off again without a word between them. Their amulets whispered encouragement and direction. Jess and Liam found they were leaving Keira behind - she had become a little unused to running, and was nowhere near their height or speed. They slowed down to accommodate this, and soon they'd set a pace acceptable to them all.   
The pokémon, it seemed, didn't yet know they were being followed - they were closing in fast. The amulets claimed they were just over the next hilltop...   
A deafening warning screech rent the air. Liam cursed as they all looked up - they hadn't thought to search the skies, and as such hadn't seen the Pidgeot, but it had certainly seen them.   
It was only with the grace and agility in the air credited to its species that the bird managed to avoid the rocks, leaves and icebeams shot up at it. It created a small whirlwind to divert further projectiles and flew up out of range.   
But they soon had bigger problems on their hands. These consisted mostly of about fifteen pokémon heading their way with intent to fight. They realized with a sigh that these didn't carry James, but they'd have to get past them to get to him.   
They came running down the hill towards the trio, but were caught rather by suprise as Liam unleashed a Rock Slide on the hill beneath them.   
They slid hopelessly down in a mini-avalanche, and were then hit by the falling rocks and dirt behind them.   
"Good one, Liam." Jess said, then ran off to the left to face some when they came as Keira ran to the right. The pokémon picked themselves up, and attacked.   
The battle, in a word, was tedious. They soon realized the strategy the pokémon had been told to employ - it was a kamikaze mission to delay them, nothing more. Sure, if they could take them out they would, but their main target was to buy some others some time to get away with James.   
And so instead of facing them straight-on and trying to overwhelm by force of numbers, they were evading attacks. Running around their opponents, working with perfect teamwork. One or two would get their attention while a couple more would sneak behind and hit with a sneak attack from behind. There were about five to each person, and their strategy was working.   
Jess had once tried to run from the battle to chase those holding James, and had been stopped in her tracks when a pair of Venonats tackled her from behind. When she'd unleashed her Icebeam at them, a Victreebell had stopped it in its tracks with an incredibly well-aimed Razor leaf, the beam hitting the leaf, freezing it, and not going any further.   
Liam was becoming frustrated. His attacks were constantly missing, the pokémon were showering him with Razor Leaf and Vine Whip attacks, and his anger was doing nothing for his judgment. One of the Weepinbell had tried pausing to charge a Solar beam, and was now lying moaning under a fairly large boulder, but the others were still at large.   
Keira was faring a little better - she was the only one with any resistance to the grass-type attacks, and she could compete with the others on their own grounds. She currently held a Beedrill captive in vines, and used it to block any attacks by the others while lashing out with her own.   
The battle raged on for some time. A couple more pokémon were taken out, but it was obvious the humans were getting the worst of it. Liam, having suffered some pretty heavy injuries, went for the tried-and-true method of attacking from underground. The pokémon, realizing their target had gone subterranean, charged wildly towards the hole.   
However, as the first - a Tangela - leapt into the hole, they heard a horrible dying scream. The Tangela was tossed out, a mass of vines wrapped around a dangerous-looking spike of rock.   
They decided that it might not be such a good idea to face him in his own territory, and so charged at the next-easiest target, Jess.   
Jess was fending off attackers wildly, appearing to be completely stressed and helpless. The appearance of three more antagonists looked like bad news...   
But suddenly she laughed, and raised her hands to the sky. The pokémon, taken aback by this, actually backed off a bit.   
Not far enough.   
Her eyes glowed icy blue as energy swirled around her in the form of the most powerful ice attack - Blizzard. It formed into a mini-whirlwind around her, whipping her long black hair around, and soon she could barely be seen in the storm of ice shards and wind. Then she let go.   
The pokémon were cut and damaged by the biting cold winds and flying ice shards, and those that weren't taken out immediately were picked off easily shortly after, as Liam jumped back up from his hole. The three of them then made short work of Keira's lot.   
They spent a short time licking their wounds, then set off once again in search of James and Meowth... 

~-~-~-~

"What the hell is this?!" Jess yelled over the crack of thunder.   
"No idea!" Keira yelled back.   
It had been incredibly sudden. They hadn't even seen the storm clouds gather. But suddenly it was pouring, they were all soaked to the skin. This couldn't be natural.   
And by the look of things, it was culminating directly ahead.   
A huge pillar of lightning slammed into the ground with a powerful blast, right where they were heading. They looked at each other, and Liam cried out, "Let's go!".   
The three of them ran through the gale-force winds, pummeled by the rain. Liam would be faring the worst, but he didn't seem to be caring much. Between the thunder and the wind, very little other sound could be heard, and visibility had become extremely limited. But they knew which way they were going, even if they had to correct themselves every ten steps to keep going that way.   
It was a long and tedious battle against the elements, made only the slightest bit more comfortable by the thought that the pokémon they hunted would be facing the same hardships. Lightning crackled, thunder rolled, another huge strike fell in front of them, but still they pressed on...   
They hit a more powerful area of wind, managed to get through, and the rain... stopped.   
The wind still buffeted them, but not nearly as powerful. They had apparently come to the eye of this storm - the sky above crackled with energy, the storm clouds boiled... and below them, down a short, sudden drop, lay a battlefield.   
Pokémon fought fiercely - or at least those that were left did. Several smoking carcasses could be seen littered across the battlefield. And in the middle, two humans fought.   
Actually, they realized after watching the battle some time, only one of them fought. He was short and had a rather thick, squarish build. Electrical power flowed through him in yellow, white and blue sparks as he threw bolts at the pokémon, and any who tried to vine whip got a rather nasty shock.   
The other was even smaller, and running around, avoiding the pokémon and sticking behind the other.   
Jess, scanning the battlefield, pointed to something. Another human figure could be seen in the grass. James!   
They watched the guy fight for a while. He was faring far better against the pokémon than they had been - the area was completely soaked, and Electric attacks were good at finding targets. And even the attacks they managed to hit back with didn't seem to be doing much, if any, damage. As they watched, a large Razor Leaf scored a fair-sized cut on his arm... and it healed within twenty seconds. The cut closed over and turned into a scab, which rapidly vanished until there wasn't even a scar.   
They stood there in shock, looking at this, until something else grabbed their attention - a Beedrill had managed to circle around and get behind the two guys. It paused for a moment to do a quick Focus Energy then dived at the smaller of the two. They cried out in warning, and Jess readied an Icebeam, but it looked too late...   
He spun around and saw the pokémon attacking, and put his hand up, as if motioning the Beedrill to stop. A useless guesture, it seemed, but no... the Beedrill suddenly slowed! It swerved aside from him. They just gaped, but Jess released her attack anyway, the pokémon froze. The two looked up at them in suprise, and they decided it was time to make their big entrance.   
Keira and Jess leapt down, powering up attacks as they went; Liam took the easier route, and walked out of the cliff face as the two landed. The few remaining pokémon looked completely defeated at the arrival of three more, and were picked off in seconds.   
They walked up to the duo. "Well, thanks - that's our friend over there... Aaah!"   
The Pidgeot which had seen them earlier was diving down towards James. The electric holder simply pointed, and a column of lightning slammed down on it with a huge, deafening thunderclap. The Pidgeot, now rather crispy, was thrown back and away, into the swirling maelstrom, out of sight.   
"Whoa..."   
"Not bad."   
He looked around for any other dangers and, finding none, powered down. The electricity crackling around him vanished, his hair - thrown up by the sheer static energy - settled back down, and suddenly the storm above began to subside. Storm clouds dissipated, the rain returned as the eye disappeared, but much lighter.   
"You were causing that?"   
He shrugged. "I wasn't trying to. Get enough electric energy in one place, you make storms."   
"Well, thanks. I'm Keira." Keira held out her hand for him.   
"I'm Rob." He said, shaking it absently. "And this is Patrick." He motioned to his partner, who they actually saw clearly for the first time. He was extremely young, he couldn't be any older than ten while Rob seemed more along the age group of the others, late teen-early twenties. He looked extremely nervous, and had curly blonde hair.   
Nobody said anything for a moment, then Rob wandered off towards the pokémon. Some of them were still alive, but badly charred and crackling with electricity - he would go up to these and administer a fatal burst of electricity - putting them out of their misery.   
Patrick flinched every time the loud BZZT sounded - he obviously didn't approve. The others didn't look hugely happy either, but it was probably the best move.   
However, they did cry out in protest when he picked up a limp white form. "Stop! Don't kill that one!" Cried Jess.   
He looked up. "Why?"   
"That's Meowth's with us."   
"Huh? Why would you travel with a pokémon?" Rob looked skeptical.   
"Just don't kill it, Rob!" Pat cried out. He rushed up and took the pokémon from his friend's hands... then shuddered.   
"What's wrong?"   
"This Meowth is sick. Very sick." He said sadly.   
The rest of them looked at each other. "James said something about it being poisoned."   
Patrick closed his eyes, cradling the pokémon, then nodded. "A very strange poison. I'll see what I can do."   
The three of them were taken aback - his voice had suddenly changed to something else, ringing with power and kindness. He closed his eyes, and a rainbow aura suddenly appeared around him and especially the pokémon. It stayed there for a few seconds then, just as suddenly, vanished.   
"I think it'll be fine." He said, a little shakily.   
Rob noticed their amazed and confused looks, and explained. "Pat's a healer. He can take care of most injuries, poisoning, the works. Better than a visit to a pokémon centre."   
They looked even more amazed. Pat looked a little embarrassed, and handed Meowth's sleeping form to Jess.   
"See what you can do for that one, Pat." He nodded towards James. "I'm off to fetch that Pidgeot. Food for a week, that'll give us. You don't mind us coming with you? Safety in numbers and all..."   
"Sure..."   
"No problems here..."   
"The more the merrier."   
Rob stalked off into the rapidly fading rain. The others clustered around Pat as he stood over James.   
"Hmmm..." Pat said curiously, and put his hands to James. The same rainbow aura surrounded him and James, and... nothing happened.   
"He's been swamped with Sleep Powder." Pat said. "He'll break out of it in a couple of minutes."   
"Good." Jess said, for lack of anything better to say.   
Then they all sat down and waited for Rob to return with the food...   



	14. A New Breed of Pokemon - Chapter 2 (12)

Untitled 12 "Krreeee-ya!" Screeched the Fearow as it dove, trying to put off its opponent. Liam stood firm, unmoved, preparing for the pokémon's strike... at the last moment he reached out his hand and a spear of rock shot forth and embedded itself in the pokémon, going right through. Holding the spear, Liam sidestepped and used the bird's momentum to throw it into the Venusaur currently fighting Jess.   
He watched with satisfaction as the Venusaur flinched, allowing Jess an opening for an Icebeam. But he was caught off guard as a Raichu let loose from behind him. He cringed until the thundershock faded, leaving him rather crispy, then charged at the little rat.   
It electrified him again as he kicked it, but it was worth it to hear the pathetic, breathless squeak of pain, feel the bones collapsing beneath his foot. He left the crippled Raichu and left to help with the Venusaur again...   
And was stopped as a Persian and an Electabuzz got in his way.   
He immediately dropped underground as the Electric pokémon unleashed a thunder attack, then came up underneath them. They were both thrown clear, Electabuzz sprawling while the Persian landed perfectly in the manner of cats, and sprung straight back to latch onto Liam's arm with its teeth.   
Liam shook, an annoyed look on his face, but the Persian hung on with teeth and forepaws, while the back ones raked anything that came close enough. Finally he grabbed it with his other hand, squeezed its neck until it cracked audibly and hung limp, then booted it away to join the Raichu... just in time to get Thunderpunched in the side by the Electabuzz.   
Jess was trying to tangle living whips around frozen ones, or freezing whips together to inconvenience the Venusaur. Indeed, the last time it had used its Razor Leaf the vines hadn't been able to get out of the way in time and had actually fielded most of the attack. With a powerful Aurora beam the huge pokémon was blown back, and she formed a large block of ice above its head to crush the life from it...   
A Victreebell hammered her in the side with a Vine Whip, throwing her to the floor. She powered up an Icebeam, but her hand was knocked away by a flying Raticate, deflecting the attack to the ground.   
Liam was holding the Electabuzz fully above his head, where it was struggling wildly and unleashing various levels of electric attack, to no avail. Snarling wildly through pain and anger, Liam ran full-on at a nearby small rock wall, tossed the pokémon into it, then spun and slammed his back into the pokémon, cracking the rock, not to mention the Electabuzz.   
Panting fairly heavily, Liam pulled away from the battered pokémon... and looked up into the glowing yellow eyes of something much larger than he.   
Steel-grey forehead sloping down into a sky-blue, spiky, thick set of whiskers. Two long fangs extended from the mouth, white fur sprayed backwards along the sides and back of the head, followed by a long, thick, curly mane of purple hair. Yellow-furred with jagged black striped, with white on the underside. The feet were a strange design, the claws appearing to emerge from a single gap in the skin, giving an image of streamlining, and a lightning-jagged tail ending in a glowing, crackling spark.   
"Hey," Raikou growled, "Why not pick on someone your own size?"   
Liam looked on in despair for a moment, before a wiry form flew through the air and latched itself onto the enormous electric dog. "You'd have to get past me first." Carnak hissed.   
Raikou flipped, trying to dislodge the wiry Guardian. Liam looked behind him to see the rocky area vanish, and the last traces of Electabuzz fade from Rob as he got up.   
Former fight forgotten, they watched Carnak and Raikou battle it out on the nonexistent 'ground' of the Dreamscape. It was a very interesting fight, as Carnak's stick-like body was virtually invulnerable to damage, but it couldn't do much damage either...   
"Come on, Raikou! Zap that stick insect!"   
"Don't let that little doggy beat you!"   
"Bite him, bite him!"   
Liam, lacking a comeback, elbowed Rob in the head, and soon they were in a heavy wrestling fight next to their guardians.   
Standing aside from the three battles were Sati, Suikun, Florasaur, Patrick, and his guardian. She was quite plainly a fairy.   
A uniform pink, she called herself Purity and was tall and graceful with long, slightly darker pink hair and the long, elegant, typical fairy dragonfly-like wings. Her face was kind, somewhat reminiscent of a Nurse Joy - in fact, before receiving the guardianship with her Chansey, she had been one, many, many years ago, which explained her and Patrick's abilities of healing.   
Patrick actually seemed rather embarrassed about her, and tried to avoid her. She often looked at him, a look of... almost despair and pity in her eyes. But right now she was looking on at the fights, though she didn't appear to be approving. The other three guardians were right into it, laying bets on who would win. Jess was having trouble with the combined efforts of James and Keira, in Raticate and Venusaur form respectively. The other pairs were fairly well matched.   
However, their conversation was abruptly cut off as one of Keira's Solar Beams missed Jess and hit Suikun right on, blowing her back and away, off into infinity. The other two laughed as the light faded, and Suikun was lost from sight... but she soon rematerialised again and jumped into the battle, snarling about revenge. The other two, of course, wasted no time. And soon one scuffle met up with another, and then the third, and everyone forgot who they were fighting, and eventually they all just collapsed into one big exhausted heap, laughing.   
"I think that's just about enough training for one night." Rob sighed, his head resting on Suikun's heaving flank and his legs trapped under Jess, who currently had Sati lying across her.   
"Yup."   
"'Bout time we got going."   
They all managed to extract themselves from each other, after much pushing and shoving, and the Guardians and the Dreamscape faded and was replaced by the fields in which they'd met Rob and Pat, still covered in burn marks from the numerable lightning strikes it'd suffered. Meowth, who'd been keeping watch, yawned.   
"One of you had better be carrying me. I'm not made for staying awake this long."   
"Sure..." James scooped the cat up, sitting him on top of his large backpack. "Are you okay there?"   
Meowth stretched, then curled up. "I'll manage. Goodnight..."   
They gathered their gear as Meowth began to snore, then set off again to the north. After some time of walking, Rob fiddled with something in his backpack, then pulled out what looked like a small holder file with straps. The others watched curiously as he strapped it on, then flipped it up, revealing a laptop, which he quickly began working on.   
"What are you doing?" Liam finally asked, speaking for all of them.   
"Checking where we are." He answered, buried in the screen. The others crowded around, as an image of the earth came up.   
"Satellite?"   
"Nothing less... now, let's see..." Rob pushed a button, and after a couple of seconds a red dot started flashing on the map. A white rectangle flashed up around it, and a zoomed-in picture appeared, revealing a smaller section of the image blow up... then again, then again, until they were looking at themselves walking along.   
Jess looked up. "Not bad."   
Rob pressed another button, and the four images appeared each in a quarter of the screen. He looked at each, snorted, then pressed a key and the world view came up again. Some more typing, and once again it zoomed in... but this time each zoom changed the picture less. When it finished this time, nine images decorated the screen instead of four.   
"That's more like it... now..." He typed a bit more, and the middle left section expanded to fill the screen. He held down the up button, and the image moved downwards to reveal the northern areas.   
"Here we go... we're here." Rob fiddled with the computer a little more and the red dot reappeared near the bottom of the screen. "Directly north we have Fuschia city, which is a pretty big one..." A red line, hair-thin, traced its way north to another area, which was outlined in blue by the computer. A zoomed-in image of the city appeared in one corner, but not much could be seen. "The geographics of the area are pretty weird. We've got three main options, if we're going north like your amulet wants us to." He looked at Jess, then continued.   
"We could go west. There's a bridge there, but it's a very steep uphill climb, and we don't know whether it's controlled by pokémon or even still there."   
"Can't you check on the satellite?"   
"No..." Rob looked a little embarrassed. "Since Ash took over there's been a lot of interference in the air. I can't explain it, but the further you zoom in, the fuzzier the picture gets. I can clear it for a small area around me, but otherwise you're not going to get a much better picture than that." He pointed at the image on the screen. "Anyway... to do that we'd also have to pass by Fuschia gym, which is built away from the city, and that area is said to be riddled with traps."   
"Oh good... what are our other options?"   
"We could go east. That would mean that we can completely avoid Fuschia altogether. But it also means we'd end up in Lavender town. And Lavender hasn't been looking too hot since the takeover."   
"More so than usual?"   
Rob punched a few keys, taking the map back two zoom levels. He pointed to a spot northeast of where they stood.   
It was just a black blotch.   
"Even if we could get through Lavender, there's a mountain range directly north of there, which I for one have no intention of crossing. We'd have to go west to Saffron..." He traced his finger across the screen to an area that looked like you were seeing it through translucent glass - even from this distance it was incredibly blurred. "...then north to Cerulean."   
"Would we have to pass through Saffron and Cerulean if we went west?"   
"Most likely."   
"What's the third option?"   
"Directly north." He traced his finger straight up. "Go straight through Fuschia city and the Safari Zone. There's a small body of water here we might have to cross..." He tapped his finger on a blue area, "But that shouldn't be too much of a problem. If worst comes to worst we could probably have Liam dig us under."   
"And what else would we have to pass?"   
"We might be able to get around Vermilion city without a problem, but we'd probably still have to go through Saffron and Cerulean."   
"So we've got to face Saffron and Cerulean no matter what."   
"I'm afraid so."   
Everyone thought about this for a while as they walked. "We can try to cross the bridge and go through Celadon, face the unknown at Lavender, or brave the Safari Zone..." Jess mused.   
"I'd suggest we avoid Lavender." Keira advised. "Ghost pokémon are pretty hard to take out, and that city's got no shortage of them..."   
"Right... Celadon or Fuschia then."   
They continued walking, then Jess piped up. "Go for Fuschia. I mean, what are we gonna do if we find the bridge out?"   
"Fuschia?"   
"Yeah... may as well."   
"Go for it."   
"Right..." Rob zoomed the image in again. "Luckily for us, Fuschia's a very long, wide, city - north to south, it doesn't take up much space. But the Safari Zone behind it... that's another matter. Some of the biggest, rarest, most dangerous pokémon lived in there. Protected. There's no telling what's happened to the place since the pokémon takeover, but what's for sure is that it doesn't see many humans. So that's gonna be rough going."   
"And after that?"   
Rob typed, and the map shrunk into one corner. Three more pictures showed up - another map, this one not satellite but drawn in, with a circle in the middle and a star near the bottom labeled 'Safari Zone'. The second showed a vast field with a herd of Tauros stampeding across it, the third a farmhouse with a woman standing out the front waving. Writing filled the center of the screen.   
"Pokemon ranch. Used to be one of the chief areas for raising pokémon. Who knows what's become of it now. But we'll worry about that when we get there, we've got Fuschia to worry about now."   
"How much further do we have to go?"   
Rob consulted the computer. "A couple hours' walk. Probably a lot faster if we stopped looking at this thing." He said, switching off the laptop and replacing it in his bag. "Come on, let's get going!"   
They set off at a fast walk towards the city in the distance... 

~-~-~-~

_ Through the forest..._   
_ Ever so slowly..._   
_ But it was still all a blur..._   
_ Pain..._   
_ Monotony..._   
_ Eternity..._   
_ Alone..._   
It crawled through the forest. It had been doing so for as long as it could remember. It could feel nothing but pain. It had had a destination, once... but now there was only one aim.   
_Keep going... no matter what... don't give up..._   
Stretch... dig... pull... stretch... dig... pull... Dragging its almost-destroyed body, it kept going. It would never give up.   
_Can't stop... ever... must... keep... going... must... ke-ep... g-o-i-n-g..._   
Its mind probably never noticed that the body no longer had the energy to move. This place looked the same as any other. Maybe it thought it was still moving. But the passing Bellsprout didn't, when it found it. It immediately ran off for help.   
When the help arrived, they found a sorry creature indeed. It had once been a Sandslash. But both legs were completely useless, crushed and destroyed. One arm was gone, along with a good section of its side and part of its face. What remained of the face was burnt and scarred. Spikes were crushed or missing. By the look of things it had dragged itself along with its one remaining limb, for how long nobody knew.   
How this thing could still be alive, let alone conscious, was beyond comprehension. The pokémon did their best to heal the creature, but it was obvious nothing was keeping it alive but its own indomitable willpower.   
When they tried to get a response out of it, it only had one thing to say. "Must go to Ash... revenge on humans..." 

~-~-~-~

They'd finally gotten close enough to get a good look at Fuschia.   
The city... had changed. To say the least.   
What once had been a rather quaint, old-fashioned city - no high-rise skyscrapers or ultra-modern buildings, more smaller houses, but a lot of them - was now a hive. Literally.   
String Shot webs stretched from tall, almost cylindrical structures. Beedrills buzzed around everywhere, though they were little more than dots at this distance. Jess, James, Liam and Rob all had pairs of electronic binoculars, and they were becoming more shocked at each discovery they made.   
"There's Scythers as well... one over to the left, near those two stacks."   
"Two more flying way up above the city, watching over."   
"See any Butterfree?"   
"No... I can't see them being friendly with those webs."   
"Too far away to see the ground, but I'm willing to bet it's swarming with Weedle."   
"Wait... hold on..." James moaned. "Oh man, this isn't good."   
"What's up?"   
"Look in around the middle of town. It's difficult to tell from this angle, but there's a group of those spires arranged in a circle with one in the middle."   
"Hmm? I... think I see it."   
"Right... now, zoom in as far as it'll let you. I think there's a web hanging from those spires."   
"Wow... that'd be a big one."   
"Yeah... and can you see what's hanging off it?"   
There was silence for a moment as they all focused their binoculars on it, trying to see. "Kakuna?"   
"Man... look at them all!" Liam said, shocked. "There must be hundreds... thousands..."   
"They normally hang off trees, but there's no trees in the city. Or not enough, anyway. So they hang them off that huge web..."   
"Come on, give me a look!" Keira half-wailed, having been growing more agitated as the others talked. Jess reluctantly relinquished her set, and Keira found the site and whistled.   
"Beedrills are really protective of the Kakuna. We go that way, we'd be killed before we got close."   
"Maybe we should try the bridge?"   
"No..." Rob said, thinking. "I've got an idea. If the Kakuna were damaged, the Beedrill would go insane, right?"   
"No kidding. And anyway, they usually keep a few of the Kakuna from evolving... just in case the Beedrill aren't there in time. Trust me, there's no way we'd even get close. And even if we did, we'd never get out alive."   
"I'm not suggesting we get close." Rob grinned, thinking. "We can cause enough chaos to make sure they never see us pass..." 

~-~-~-~

They were now standing quite near the city of hives, and it was even worse.   
The continuous drone of Beedrill was enough to drive anyone insane. They circled the air, looking for intruders or diving from one huge hive-building to another, some tending to the Kakuna here and there. And their earlier prediction had been right - the ground was literally swarming with Weedle.   
This was Beedrill central.   
Keira had managed to spot what was being kept in many of the buildings, too - humans. She'd spotted two Beedrill carting someone, completely wrapped in string shot except for the head, from one building to another. Hmmm...   
Rob and Jess weren't interested in the view at this point, but had their eyes closed, concentrating. Liam wasn't in the group either. And the Beedrill were becoming a little concerned by the way the huge storm clouds were gathering above...   
Between Jess's water control and Rob's thunder, they'd managed to gather what looked like a hell of a storm. The sky grew darker as more clouds piled up above the insect city, and finally the rain broke in a huge downpour, centralized over the city.   
The Beedrill gave a combined shrill cry, but apart from that they didn't seem to be hugely affected by the rain. Jess had by now stopped, her job done, but Rob was gathering energy for...   
BOOM! A huge clap of thunder almost flattened the hidden quintet as an incredible bolt of lightning flew down and hit the tall center spire of the web. The soaking web transmitted the electric current to every Kakuna hanging from it, several nearby Beedrill and uncountable Weedles on the ground, before the central spire exploded and the web was aflame.   
The squeal of the Kakuna was unmistakable. Many of them lay helpless on the ground, and the ground was a massive elemental battle between the pouring rain and spreading fires.   
Rob, without opening his eyes, grinned mercilessly. He tensed for a moment, and another bolt struck another spire nearby, which set it and a good section of nearby web alight, before it toppled over. The web was torn, other sections were set alight, and it's sure that it crushed no small amount of pokémon on its way down. Even more raging blazes.   
The Beedrill count in the air was incredible; they were flying so thick through the air that it seemed impossible for them not to get tangled and fall. The humans still watching whistled - they hadn't known there'd been so many Beedrill in the entire world... and they were still coming.   
Another bolt struck, oblivious to the small hordes of Beedrill between the sky and the spire. After the strike had finished, they watched, amazed, as all the Beedrill within a few feet of the bolt tumbled out of the sky, smoking, to create a hole in the ranks that was quickly swallowed up by the other 'Drills.   
Twice more the lightning struck. The fires had gathered into a raging inferno, the web just _wasn't _anymore. Beedrills screamed and buzzed, Kakunas squealed helplessly, Weedles crawled around in an effort to get away from the deadly fires.   
A hole appeared in front of them. "I've got it. Instant path under Fuschia." He poked his head up, and saw that none of them had even looked at him yet, but were watching with awe at the scene behind him. He turned.   
"Wow... Good work, Rob." Liam grinned, which was unusual. "Couldn't have done better myself."   
The others managed to tear their gaze away from the awesome burning city of bugs to enter Liam's tunnel. Each of them still paused at the mouth of the tunnel to drink in the sight one more time, before entering the cool blackness of the tunnel. Liam held a burning torch, courtesy of Keira, and Rob gave some small, flickering light as electric sparks surrounded his hand.   
They slowly made their way through the tunnel. "Without our help, the rain should soon stop." Rob mused. "If the fire isn't put out by then, and they don't get some water pokémon in here fast, then the city is gonna be razed to the ground. String shot is extremely flammable."   
"And that should take up their time while we get through the Safari Zone."   
"Right. And then we've only got two or three cities left to go before we find this mysterious ally Suikun keeps insisting will allow us to defeat Ash."   
Their conversation spun from topic to topic as they walked through the tunnel, until it started to slope upwards. Liam removed the ceiling and Fuschia city was behind them, still burning merrily, and the Safari Zone was ahead... 


	15. A New Breed of Pokemon - Chapter 3 (13)

Untitled13ish They'd walked right into the ambush, not even suspecting it. The first they knew of the pokemon was when something flew at them from the bushes.   
THWACK!   
There had been no time to shout a warning, or even register exactly what the missile was, before Liam twirled around and dealt it a crushing backhand slap. They identified it as a half-crushed Weedle as it flew away, before it slammed into one of the multitudinous trees in the forest that was the Safari Zone, where it exploded in a mass of innards.   
"Watch out, there's a-" Keira flicked it away with a vine. "-nother."   
Two more Weedles flew at them, stinger first. One was fried in midair by a short shock by Rob, the other hit James's Barrier. But that wasn't the last of them.   
"They're everywhere!" Patrick twirled nervously, seeing pokemon arise from bushes, drop from trees, wing their way in...   
"We're surrounded!"   
"An ambush!" Liam and Rob called out at the same time. The five fighters quickly formed a ring, facing outwards with Pat in the middle. More bugs came in, and still more, until they were surrounded by what appeared to be a solid wall of bug pokemon. Caught completely off guard, they readied themselves for battle.   
"I think we may have strolled through the wrong part of the Safari Zone..." James mumbled.   
"I think they're not too happy about Fuschia..." Muttered Jess. "This looks like fun."   
"They can't do that much damage..." Keira whispered. "Just watch for the powders, the occasional psychic attack, and keep back from the poison stingers..."   
They attacked!   
Swarms of Beedrills led the charge, closely followed by a flying wall of Caterpies and Weedles, followed again by Pinsirs and Venonats. Luckily there weren't any Scythers in the area, and the Butterfrees and Venomoths couldn't use their powerful powder attacks since they would be absorbed by the other bugs before they ever hit the humans...   
The melee was ferocious, and Patrick was having to frantically keep swapping between the others for healing. Liam was faring best, being virtually immune to the physical and poison barrage, especially with the heavy earthern blocks that formed on his arms. James was shredding anything that came at him, at home most fighting the beedrills in blade-to-stinger combat.   
Keira was doing her best to protect herself, and was trying to avoid the Beedrills while employing a pair of dis-connected Beedrill stingers to attack the non-poison types, since her Grass-element did little or no damage to the hording bugs. Jess was quickly hidden behind a barrier of frozen bug-types, which grew much faster than it could be knocked aside by the other bugs.   
Meowth was darting in and out of the pokemon's ranks, slashing wildly at anything that came in range. Many an enemy pokemon fell victim to the flying whirlwind of claws that was the cat.   
They seemed to be winning (or at least surviving) so far, but the battle had lasted less than a minute, though as furious as it was it felt like half an hour. The bug bodies were piled up, but they didn't even seem to have made a dent in the enemy horde. Sheer force of numbers seemed to be the game...   
Then, as quickly as the melee had begun, it stopped. The bugs unexpectedly drew back on some unspoken signal and formed a ring of angry glares. The humans, confused, lowered their guard for a second...   
Pshhhhhhht! A hissing sound filled the area as practically every bug in the place unleashed a string-shot. They cried out in alarm as a wave of it hit them, but luckily the majority was pushed back by James's quick thinking and barrier. Soon they were in complete darkness as the string covered the barrier and hardened into a solid wall.   
Keira illuminated the place with a variation on the Solarbeam - using previously stored solar energy to create light. The ball of light hovered above her outstretched hand, and showed James struggling to keep the failing barrier holding up the rapidly sagging ceiling.   
She made a hand motion, and suddenly four small, thick and unnatural-looking trees shot up around them to take the weight. James gratefully let go of the forcefield, and the heavy barrier collapsed onto the trees.   
"Well... this can't be good."   
By the light of Keira's energy ball, they tested the string-shot dome, which sagged rather dangerously in the middle, between the trees. Not even Liam could even begin to shift the bulging centre of the prison. There was little space for the six of them to move around in - just next to the trees, it was still too low for Liam or Jess, the tallest, to stand; in the centre all of them had to duck. And it was only about fifteen feet across.   
Liam experimented with digging out, but the soil was loose and root-infested - it'd be almost impossible to make any leeway. He began to dig anyway. There was too many bugs out there to fight head-on, so getting out through the top was probably not a good idea.   
The air soon became stuffy, but Liam dug on. He'd gotten through quite a few roots, but it was pretty solid. He was caught quite by suprise, however, when something picked him up out of his hole and threw him against the roof, then let him fall back.   
"What di-" Keira was caught off guard as well, and was thrown into a tree by some invisible force. James suffered the same fate soon after, then Pat was thrown into him.   
"It's the pokem-ummph!" Keira was tossed again, into a wall. "The psychics! Butterfree and that! They're using their attacks through the wall!"   
"We've got to get out of here..." Jess said quickly. "We're gonna get beaten to death down here. We've gotta take our chances on the surface!"   
A couple of them looked dubious, but they quickly decided otherwise when another bout of psychic blasts hit.   
"Right, that's it." Liam said, holding his head as he got up. A rather dangerous-looking stone knife appeared in his hand, and he set to the wall. James and Jess called forth etheral and ice weapons to assist, and they joined him.   
There was more string shot than they'd expected. They hacked and swung at the thick layers, tearing chunks away to form a tunnel, with Keira lighting from behind and catching any who were thrown with her vines before they hurt anyone.   
It seemed like a long time before Liam's knife broke a hole to the outside world. The bright sunlight blinded them, but they kept slashing away until they had a good view of the outside world.   
Unfortunately, their view contained about thirty or more Butterfree. All of which had an unparalleled view of them.   
Every one of them flapped their wings hard, and a cloud of sparkling blue powder threw itself into their faces, and past them into the dome. All of them coughed and spluttered, then slowly felt the energy drain from their bodies as the sleep powder took effect. Before long, they were all sleeping, without hope of waking up... 

~-~-~-~

Jess slowly opened her eyes and stared unseeingly at the roof. Something was wrong. Very wrong. She didn't know quite what it was, but something was missing...   
Her mind slowly sifted through memories, unwisely starting at the start and moving forward. She unconsciously winced as she came to the pokemon-running-away bit, but moved on. The amulets... something to do with the amulets... She'd just woken up from...   
It hit her. No Dreamscape! She'd been sleeping without visiting that place. Her hand snapped to her neck where the amulet hung. _Nothing! _She frantically started searching her pockets, where she sometimes kept it.   
"Don't bother. They've taken the amulets." She looked to the voice. Liam and Keira were sitting there, looking rather down. Finally the memory of what had happened hit her, and she stared around the room.   
They were in a jail. The walls were thick, the windows and doors were barred, and a whole lot of other sad-looking people were sitting around. Jittery pokemon laughter echoed from outside the door.   
She looked around some more. The other three guys were still out of it; there was no sign of Meowth.   
"We woke up about ten minutes ago." Liam explained. "There's nothing we can really do here, except wait for a miracle..."   
But they tried anyway.   
They tried to get the pokemon's attention, what they were hoping to achieve was unsure. The other prisoners soon dragged them away from the doors, however - they'd tried that before, and the net result was a Butterfree coming in and blasting the lot of them with Stun Spore to shut them up.   
They searched for structural faults or escape routes in the walls, but a tall, blue-haired woman advised against it.   
"This is a top-security prison. It's kept in top condition, and even if you escaped the pokemon would get you." It was only then they realised it was an Officer Jenny - without her outfit and with a rather messy hairstyle, she looked like a completely different person.   
There were about fifty people in the jail, but one stood out from the rest. This one sat in a different room, much smaller, against a wall. The area seemed to have a rather white tinge to it, but the person was black.   
Whoever it was did not have an inch of skin showing, but was completely wrapped in a black cloak, from the hood covering the head to the material running over the floor past the feet. They inquired to their cellmates about him, but they just shook their heads and told them not to go near him. The last person who had insulted him, just through sheer boredom and something to do, had regretted it. When asked what had happened, they refused to say any more. They kept glancing at him though - You could tell he was watching everything closely.   
"This is great." Jess complained, aiming a kick at the wall.   
"That was a short career. Looks like we don't get to save the world after all."   
Keira began to put a response in, but was cut off by her own yawn. Although they hadn't been here long, they were running out of energy - Sleep Powder-induced sleep does not restore energy like normal sleep, and they'd all grown used to getting power from the amulets.   
"Well, it looks like we'll be here for a while. We may as well get some sleep..."   
They looked back on events as they settled down on the hard floor. Although many of them seemed to take forever at the time, they seemed to have reached here in a flash in hindsight. What a way to end a rebellion - rotting in some prison in the middle of the Safari Zone... 

~-~-~-~

Jess stirred.   
It sounded like something was calling her name. She sighed. It must be her imagination - who would call her? The place was incredibly dark, starlight shone through the high windows...   
It called again, more urgently. She moved to put her pillow over her head, then remembered she didn't have a pillow, yawned and sighed again.   
However, she jumped to attention pretty quickly when a small ball of fire hit the ground next to her, somehow blowing up quietly. She looked around for the source, and saw the black-swathed being in the next room beckoning to her with one hand, and holding the other up, surrounded by soft flames.   
"When I call you in future, be a little more prompt." He said as she approached, in a low, gravelly voice. As she entered the room, she gasped - the temperature drop was like a physical wall, hitting her as she walked in. She soon realised the whiteness on the walls was ice.   
"Get your friends." He continued.   
"Huh?"   
"Do you want to get out of here or not?"   
"Uh, sure..." She moved away, to shake her friends awake...   
Soon all six of them were facing him, and he spoke again.   
"I take it the six of you were captured the same way as me - mass sleep powder. But when they got me, they couldn't find my amulet. This thing's got more secret pockets than even I know about."   
"Huh?"   
"They made this room to hold me. The cold keeps me weak. And if I stand up, the entire room will fill with water instantly. Pressure plate." He explained.   
"And how are we supposed to help you?"   
"When you were thrown in, one of the Pinsir that brought you was holding your amulets. He came to wave them in my face, just out of reach, just to annoy me, show me that more of my kind have been captured. Of course, I blew fire in his face. He ran around screaming and yelling a while, then finally managed to put it out by pressing his face against the wall.   
"He left, threatening dire curses and such. But what he didn't notice as he left was that one of the amulets was missing."   
"What?"   
"It took me a while to find it. He'd accidently flung it away, into one corner of the room. I hid it under the ice."   
"Huh? How'd you do that, if you can't stand up?"   
"Melt the ice, then let it refreeze."   
"Oh."   
"It's right over there." He pointed, and a stream of fire leapt from his finger and hit the ice. It melted away rapidly. Liam ran over and scooped up the amulet, a glowing Sapphire.   
"It's Suikun." He said, handing it to Jess. She gratefully slipped it over her neck once again.   
"Right, here's the deal. The entire chamber behind me..." He pointed at the wall. "Is full of water. I get up, it comes down on our heads. The doors will close, we'll drown. But you," The hood moved to face Jess, "You can freeze it. You can freeze the water, then I can get up and get you all out of here. What do you say?"   
It didn't seem to be much of a choice. Jess shrugged and moved up to the wall, and put her hands against it, concentrating. The cloaked one winced as the waves of cold energy radiated off Jess, but soon she took her hands off.   
"There's nothing but a big iceblock back there now." She assured him.   
"Yes!" He exalted. He threw himself forward off the seat, and gave a huge stretch. They backed off slightly - he was rather large, much taller than even Liam, who was well over six foot himself.   
Once he'd stretched, he slumped slightly, and he seemed to shrink. The hood nodded slowly. "I'll take care of the bugs. Just run when I call you to. Okay?"   
"Err... okay."   
"Right."   
"Sure you don't want us to help?" Suggested Jess.   
He didn't even respond. With a grunt, he shot a small fireball at the wall.   
A loud explosion and a lot of flying fire, ice and masonry later, a large hole was apparent in the wall. He confidently stepped out. There were some quick sounds of a scuffle, another smaller explosion, and two charred bug pokemon were thrown into the cell.   
It was all they could do to wait, getting tenser and tenser by the second. Cries of fury and pain sounded now and again. The crackling of raging fires soon became permanent. More explosions sounded.   
The other prisoners had been awoken by the noise, and were now crowding around the hole trying to escape. Liam held them back.   
"If you go out there, you'll get killed."   
They managed to hold back the excited crowds, but then a yell from outside sounded. "Now!"   
They ran out, giving half-hearted yells to to the others to stay put. They, of course, were having none of that, and charged out afterwards. Denizens of other large cells cried out for help, and some of the more charitable escapees set to finding a way to free them too.   
But all the runaways came to a halt when they saw the battle. The entire place was littered with fires, be they burning bug bodies or structure. The few remaining pokemon were backing off from the deadly enemy. But someone else was coming in.   
It was a Scyther.   
Over a foot taller than a normal Scyther, the bug stood regally. Scars covered its exoskeleton. The blades were longer than usual, reaching out much further than the black-cloaked one could hope to reach. Its eyes blazed with fury. This was no mere veteran blade-fighter - this was a champion among Scythers.   
"You foolsss... you will never essscape here..." It hissed.   
It lowered itself into a crouch, ready to attack. Its opponent did the same.   
With a blinding flash of speed, it flew at the fire amulet-holder. Blades drew back, ready to slash to bits the creature who had destroyed so many of its subordinates.   
It never even got close.   
A blast of fire impacted it in mid-flight. The strong exoskeleton armour protected it from serious damage, but it was blown backwards, and soon found itself enveloped in smoke and unable to see.   
It wasn't expecting its enemy to come right up to it, inside slashing range, and so was quite suprised to see the black hood right in front of its face. It attempted to jump back and let loose with both blades, but soon found that this was impossible.   
As the smoke cleared, the problem became apparent. It's opponent had grabbed its arms, just below the blades, in a strong grip. And he didn't want to let go.   
The Scyther shrieked and cursed, threatened and struggled, but the other stood fast. The blades came near him once or twice, but never touched...   
The Scyther maneuvered the blades up, and then began to try to bring them down on the other's head. Putting all it's power into bringing those blades down, it even began to fly up to push down harder, putting incredible stress on the blades until...   
SNAP! SNAP!   
The Scyther's arms snapped like tree branches. It unbalanced, but managed to land upright, looking in shock at the stumps where its blades had been before.   
The cloaked figure laughed. Both of them knew he had won. After all, what good was a Scyther without his blades?   
He brought the two blades up. "I'm told it's considered honourable among your kind to die by your own blades..." He said. The Scyther nodded, and spread his stumps wide, leaving his body unguarded, prepared to die having lost against a greater adversary...   
The other continued. "...So, here's what you get!" He rammed the blades into the ground on either side, and unleashed an incredible punch.   
There was a sharp cracking sound as it encountered the exoskeleton, a dying gasp of pain and suprise from the pokemon... and another sharp cracking sound. The others, seeing it side-on, had a perfect view of his fist emerging from the creature's back.   
Blood dripped from the gaping hole, and the creature's mouth, as he slowly drew his fist out. The Scyther, frozen in position, toppled over. Not wasting time on the corpse, he moved over to a box that lay nearby and tossed it to the others. It contained the other five amulets. He then spun around and slammed a fireball into a Beedrill sneaking up behind him, and it flew into the others, making them jump out of the way. When they turned back to him, he had moved towards the door.   
"That should take care of them." He nodded, satisfied. "But they'll have reinforcements soon. Let's leave."   
The six of them gratefully accepted this offer, and they ran from the jail. In the past, it was regarded as somewhat impossible to escape that jail, because of the surrounding Safari Zone pokemon which had been trained to guard the area - but now, the Safari Zone was practically deserted, and the thick jungle offered them some protection as they ran like hell.   
They ran... and ran... and ran... and ran until they felt they could run no more, trying as they did to put the liberated amulets somewhere for safekeeping, slowing a little as they increased the gap between the center and themselves... then speeding up once more as the alarm finally set off, and even from here a faint buzzing of wings could be heard.   
The running seemed to last an eternity... Seeing nothing but flashing greenery, hearing nothing but the leaves and branches rustling and everyone's ragged pants, thinking of nothing but the hordes of pokemon that was probably already on their tail...   
Nobody was sure when it was that their cloaked saviour ground to a stop. "We should be fine here for a while. Take a rest."   
No-one argued with this. They either collapsed or doubled over, trying to catch their breath. The black-cloaked one didn't show any sign of being tired, but simply watched them and spared the occasional glance in the direction of the prison.   
They recovered remarkably quickly as the amulets fed power into their bodies. Jess was the first to fully recover, and she picked herself up - slowly, for fear of her limbs falling off. She might have more energy, but she still felt rather shaky.   
"Thanks," She said, approaching the newbie. "I don't know how we would have gotten out of there without you. I don't think we were ever introduced... I'm Jess..." She trailed off, suddenly feeling her words weren't getting through.   
He was laughing. Softly, and in his very low voice... it was on the very edge of hearing, but she could tell.   
Everyone looked, wondering what he was finding so funny. The laugh seemed to intensify for a moment, then he looked to the girl in front of him.   
He held out both his gloved hands, and whispered, "Heatwave."   
To all the others watching, the change was quite tangible - the air went from a cool tropical night to a midsummer scorcher in a second. One could almost see the steam explode off the ground and trees.   
Jess, however, was hit by the full force of the attack. The blast of hot air carried her off her feet to slide a short way across the ground. The attacker covered the distance in two easy steps, and the hooded, hidden head looked down at her. All that could be seen were two faintly glowing red eyes.   
She suddenly pulled out from her instinctive fear, and unleashed a watergun at him. He was a fire-type, he should be weak to it... but he held up an arm and the water splashed harmlessly off it. She used Icebeam, and he pulled around the cloak... it hit, and a thin coat of ice formed on it... he flapped the thing once, and the ice cracked and fell off to quickly melt in the boiling air.   
He laughed again, louder this time, but it was cut short as a blast of electricity hit him from behind. He didn't seem badly hurt, but swung around angrily.   
"What do you think you're doing?" Rob yelled, as he unleashed another electric blast. He leapt to the side to avoid it, and it skimmed only inches above Jess. Keira was hiding behind a tree - she was in no position to fight a powerful fire guardian.   
James shot a physical bolt at him, somewhat like a rock throw... it hit him right in the stomach, causing him to double over, almost stagger. James looked elated.   
But Liam took the opportunity to attack the treacherous amulet-holder, and let rip with an uppercut to the doubled-up figure. He managed to dodge it, however, and Liam was left slightly unbalanced. He gave a slight shove, and he toppled.   
He gave another quick laugh, the tiny blazes that were his eyes burning brightly. Rob let loose another electric blast, but it was countered in midair by a flash of fire.   
Liam suddenly shot up from the ground with another powerful punch, being the only one who could match him in size. The other ducked, but the attack caught the hood, throwing it back...   
Revealing something none of them had expected.   
The head was coloured a dark red, almost marone. But that wasn't as alarming as the shape - it was long and reptilian, resembling something halfway between Charmeleon and Charizard; Twin horns protruded from the back of the skull, half-hidden in a thick mane of red-brown hair. The eyes still glowed, but it wasn't as noticable outside the dark hood.   
Liam simply stood there in shock, giving the creature a chance to topple him once more... but this time somewhat more powerfully, causing him to fly back and tumble. The rest looked on in disbelief - What sort of pokemon was this?   
It grinned, revealing a long snout full of sharp, yellowed fangs. "So... these are the humans Ash ordered me to kill. I must say I'm disappointed..." 


	16. A New Breed of Pokemon - Chapter 4 (14)

DC14 The six humans looked on in shock at the creature before them. Nothing moved for some time, the scene resembling a frozen tableau...   
The long, inhuman grin remained on its face. "Come on... surely you're not scared of me. You've faced worse before, haven't you?" Its head moved forward tauntingly on its long, flexible neck. "Well, I guess I'll just have to start this again for you. Catch!"   
The long cloak flapped as it spun and tossed a fireball at the group. Jess managed to break out of her trance to counter it with a bolt of ice; the two attacks collided and fizzled out.   
"Oh, so you can attack after all. How about physical combat?" It leapt forwards, apparently speeding across the ground without needing to actually touch it. Jess didn't have time to react before the huge being was in front of her, and unleashing a punch from a fist about three times the size of her own... and stopping, a sliver away from her body. She looked up into the lizardine face in suprise, and he gave her a confident, sneering grin, a wink... then moved down and spun, and kicked her feet out from under her.   
Even as Jess went down, it managed to sense the crackling of electricity behind it, and leapt up to avoid. An amazing aerial maneuver resulted as it apparently ignored the laws of physics, jumping far higher than its own height and performing a deft spin and flip that shouldn't be possible for something of that bulk. But it did, and landed heavily... before leaping again, this time coming down on Rob. Although he managed to avoid the majority of the blow, he was still sprawled flat.   
"These are the legendary amulet-holders that are spreading fear and destruction through the pokemon peoples?" The creature sneered. "I don't believe this."   
"Well, how about this?" With a running leap, Liam suprised the creature from behind, and latched onto its back, arms around its long neck. It roared in surprise, and struggled and snapped at this unwanted hampering. After the shock of it had disappeared, it seemed to calm.   
"Hmm? Can you hold on if I set you on fire?" It twisted one hand around to point at Liam's side. A small bolt of flame shot out and hit him - Liam barely winced.   
"I'm rock-type. Fire doesn't hurt me." He grinned, and pulled back on its neck until it was basically staring at him upside down. It grunted in pain and suprise.   
"Maybe you do have some fight in you after all... tell me then, rock-type, how do you like heights?"   
Liam was taken aback as there was a frantic rustling all about him... and suddenly he felt a jolt, and looked down to see the earth far below.   
The earth, and the main source of his power. He couldn't do anything from up here... no... He felt his grip begin to weaken as the creature onto which he was latched began to do some fast spins and twists... until he felt two heavy gloved hands close around his arms, pull them over the long neck and head, then suddenly he was falling, falling...   
He didn't take much damage from the fall, but looked up to see the being floating down. The others were in just as much shock. The cloak that had wrapped the thing was no ordinary cloak, it seemed, but a huge pair of dragonlike wings... although, like the rest of him, they were swathed in black material. He held the wings around, in a smothering manner, ready to attack again.   
"For god's sakes... every time you see something unexpected, you just sit there in shock until I make a move against you. I can't understand how any of you lasted ten minutes out there."   
"Just shut up and fight." Liam snarled, brushing himself off. His opponent laughed.   
"Fight? Okay..." He reached behind his back, where the wings joined, and they saw him drawing two things out... a flash of green, the shine of moonlight on a razor edge... but then he slid them back down, and brought his arms back empty-handed. "You're not worth using the blades."   
Liam's eyes darkened further at this. "Come on then, freak. Let's see what you've got." He stood in a fighting position. The inhuman adversary laughed.   
"Foolish human. One on one? If I must." He walked up, heavily. Liam was tall, but rather thin and bony, even if he was strong... but this thing in front of them had the build of a Machoke, and the fire powers on top of that. And the wings too.   
Liam attacked first, but the creature knocked the punch away with almost a dismissive wave. It retaliated with a lazy chop, which Liam blocked... although his arm wavered slightly.   
"Hmm... a little stronger than you look. How about this?"   
On the word 'about' he gave a low sweep, which Liam jumped with ease... and quickly followed by an uppercut. Liam managed to stop the attack hitting his head, but was still thrown backwards... but he managed to turn the momentum into a flip, land on hands and feet, and quickly brought himself up.   
He had no time to prepare for a powerful shoulder charge. It hit him full in the chest, and he was thrown back head over heels until he crashed into a tree... which toppled down on top of him. The victorious winged freak snorted as Patrick raced over to Liam's aid, but made no effort to stop him.   
"Now... any of you others want to try your luck? Come on... you can all attack at once if you want. I don't care."   
Jess aimed an Icebeam at its feet, in an effort to freeze it to the ground. One wing flashed in front of the beam, however, and it did little damage. She leapt back as a fireball was thrown at her feet in retaliation, and was damaged little.   
James and Keira attacked together, Keira's Razor Leaf mingling with James's half-invisible blades. A small ball of fire negated most of the leaves, but the etheral weapons continued. The creature roared in pain as one of them embedded itself in his arm, and went to remove it to find it had already faded into non-existance. He held out one outspread hand towards James - the humans noticed at this point there were only three fingers beside the thumb on his hands, though their thickness made it look normal. But the Fire Blast that flew towards James was quite normal, and quite powerful... his Barrier was pushed back as he worked to prevent the heavy blast coming towards him. Jess had the presence of mind to leap at him, tackle him out of the way, and the attack shattered the barrier and continued on into the forest, exploding upon hitting a tree and setting a good section of the forest ablaze. Jess held out a hand to it, and shot a Blizzard; the flames were extinguished as a layer of frost covered the plants.   
Their opponent grinned and waited for the next attack, but a tinge of pain, a note of forcedness in the smile was evident. But suddenly it straightened, looked away from them, off into the forest.   
This behaviour puzzled the humans no end. Their opponent, who had been out for their blood a moment ago, was now staring off intently into the trees, motionless. Rob began to power up an attack while he was distracted... but he shook his head, waved his hand at Rob as if to say "No, wait, get down."   
Rob was very confused at this, but he let the electricity die out. A few moments later, the creature looked back to them. "The bugs are coming this way. They must have picked up on our fight."   
"What do you care?" Keira retorted rudely. "You're on their side, aren't you? Reinforcements?" The humans all prepared to fight once again.   
The dragon-like head grinned at them again. "I wouldn't have stopped the fight, then, would I?" It said, then leapt in the air, wind catching under the huge wings, even though he didn't appear to be flapping them much.   
It hovered level with the canopy, holding both hands up as fire pooled around them. Everything was deathly quiet...   
A Beedrill burst from the trees!   
The flying creature simply pointed his hand at it, and a burst of flame hit the bug, making a small explosion on contact; the creature's blackened husk toppled to the ground.   
Two more Beedrill and a Venomoth met the same fate, before it let the fire drop and reached behind again, this time pulling the green blades all the way out.   
The blades from the Scyther he'd killed earlier. The long, curved, razor-sharp appendages were held ready...   
Bugs burst from the forest! Beedrills and Butterfree, Venomoth and Pinsir, swarms of lesser pokemon crawling across the ground...   
They were quickly eliminated as the strange being on nobody's side spread an Ember attack over the ground, and while the resulting flames were low and weak, they represented death to Caterpie and Weedle.   
Speeding through the air, the blades flashed... wings and limbs and parts of bug bodies fell useless to the ground. A butterfree unleashed a stun spore... which simply ignited in midair, along with the Butterfree's wings, and the poor insect fell screaming to the ground.   
"Hey, you lot, wanna give me a hand?" The creature called from on high. They looked at each other. _He tried to kill us, now he wants our help?_ Liam growled.   
"No." He called back up. The others had been intending to think about it for a moment, but now that Liam had said it they decided to agree...   
"Fine then," It muttered. "This is fun anyway..." More bug parts piled up beneath. The others watched in fascination - at least he wasn't attacking them now.   
Suddenly another Scyther burst through the trees, straight at the flying creature. It managed to dodge a Flamethrower before closing in - while it wasn't nearly as large or powerful as the last Scyther faced, in blade-to-blade combat it had the skill advantage, and probably the speed too.   
Suddenly the confident dragon-like being was forced to fight for his life with this mad lawnmower, green blades flashing around wildly until nobody could tell which was which and who was winning. And in the meanwhile, more pokemon were coming into the clearing, and the humans were forced to defend themselves from the bugs...   
Concentrating on its fight with the Scyther, the creature never saw the Beedrill coming up behind it. It probably would have run him through, but at the last moment it was hit by a heavy blast of electricity... the being was still bumped by it, and it proved a moment of distraction...   
It only just managed to avoid the Scyther's strike by pounding both wings forward, throwing itself backwards. Now it had a bit of breathing space, it took a long breath... and unleashed a fireball, which exploded on the Scyther in a storm of sparks and flying flames...   
The Scyther was amazing still alive, though somewhat the worse for wear... but the followup kick rammed it into a tree, and it slid down, unconscious, its razor-sharp wings stripping the bark as it went.   
Now the resistance was taken care of, it went back to dismemebering bugs left, right and center... until the remaining pokemon ran away in terror and confusion. Soon not a bug pokemon could be seen - or not a full one anyway. After checking there were no more in sight, it dropped down, wiping the bug innards off the Scyther blades before resheathing them and folding the wings around once more, and replacing the hood. There was once again no sign this thing was anything other than human, besides the glowing red eyes... but they weren't nearly as bright as before.   
"That wasn't too bad, but I expected somewhat more." It said. "I'll be coming with you."   
If they were confused before, this completely threw them off. "What? What is with you? First you try to kill us, then you want to join us?"   
"I wasn't trying to kill you. I was merely testing you."   
"Pretty tough testing."   
"It was better that way. If you thought I was trying to kill, you'd fight harder."   
"What the hell _are_ you?" Keira finally blurted, the question the others had been avoiding asking. The hood turned towards her.   
"Something you'll be seeing a lot of in future." The eyes flashed. "Ash is meddling with the pokemon gene pool, mixing types and all that. But I am... was... his crowning achievement. Half pokemon, half human. With somewhat more power than either, as you've seen."   
"Mixing humans and pokemon?"   
"Ash named me 'Damian'. I'm half-Charizard. If you haven't guessed that already."   
"Then why are you helping us?" Liam asked, his eyes narrowed. "If you're half pokemon, then..."   
"Because Ash screwed up. And I'm not listening to that freak." They were surprised to hear the voice, which had been ever calm and confident, suddenly fall into a heated rage. "He's an idiot. And he's gonna die."   
"Oookay..."   
"He sent me to kill you. But I'm going with you. And I'm going to kill him. Got any problems with that?"   
"Err..."   
"Not that it matters. I'm coming with you anyway, and you can't stop me."   
Stunned into silence, the humans gaped as this unpredictable freak turned away and moved back the way they'd come. He'd actually gone completely out of sight, before the hood turned back to them.   
"Look, I saw a couple of packs back at the bug base. There shouldn't be much resistance there right now. Do you want to go back and get them? I'm sure you'd prefer to have your gear."   
Rob was the first to nod and move forward. Pat followed him, though rather hesitantly, then Jess and James. Liam and Keira looked less acceptant, though Liam's face showed distrust and anger while Keira's showed disgust and fear.   
"Hmph..." Liam snorted, then stalked off after the others. Keira hesitated before running after Liam, before he left her sight - as much as she didn't want a Charizard accompanying them, she didn't particularally want to be left behind in the forest either... 


	17. A New Breed of Pokemon - Chapter 5 (15)

Untitled

A day after the incident in the Safari Zone, there was a very wide range of opinions pertaining to the strange creation that had forcibly joined their team.   
Rob, it seemed, didn't particularly care one way or the other - an ally was an ally, not really worth thinking about. Patrick seemed rather curious about him, but was far too timid to go anywhere near the huge being, almost twice his height and many times his weight.   
Liam had made it quite clear that he didn't trust Damian, and never would, not in a million years. Keira's avid fear and disgust towards Fire pokemon didn't help her opinion of him. James was too busy grieving for the loss of Meowth, who Damian claimed had been flown off to Ash's castle immediately. Jess was possibly the most amicable towards him - he'd gained some trust when he'd stopped that punch he'd nearly used on her, which probably would've snapped her in half.   
But none of them were quite willing to just accept him as part of the group. He noticed this very quickly - you'd have to be blind not to - and had taken it upon himself to scout ahead, flying, after he'd led them back to the prison. The people imprisoned within had long since escaped, but they were fairly sure that they'd end up being rooted out by the pokemon in the end.   
"We're just about out of it now." Rob said, staring into the screen of his computer. "There's an area of water separating the Zone and Vermilion... but that shouldn't be too hard to manoeuvre around, so long as there's nobody there waiting for us..."   
"How far ahead?"   
"Not too far." Rob looked up. "It's hard to get a pinpoint in this thick foliage, but I think it shouldn't be more than half an hour..."   
That estimate turned out to be a little optimistic. It was nearly an hour before they found themselves standing at a small slope which quickly sunk underwater. The opposite shore was in sight, but it didn't look to be a fun trip - the water was choppy and treacherous.   
"This is inland... why is it so rough?"   
"The owners wanted it to imitate the real world. It's run by a machine that churns the water... there's a huge whirlpool in the middle, off that way." He pointed off to the left. "It's not hugely strong, so the pokemon have a great time spinning around in it..."   
"Okay. So how do we get across it?"   
"I can fly it, easily." They all spun around as the huge black wraith that was Damian floated down behind them, landing heavily and folding his wings around him. "I could probably carry one of you, too..."   
Liam narrowed his eyes. "I'll dig."   
Rob nodded. "It's not too deep, around here... this is the shallow end, technically. I'm not sure why this thing was never bridged... probably the pokemon didn't like it. I suppose nobody's supposed to be in the Safari Zone anyway."   
"I can swim it." Jess said confidently. "There wouldn't be any pokemon down there, would there?"   
"I've been hovering over the place for a while now. If there are any pokemon there, they're under strict orders to keep hidden." Damian assured her.   
"Okay... Does everyone know how they're going?"   
"Wouldn't it be easier for us all to just go underground?" Liam asked.   
"Suit yourself. Does anyone want a ride?" Damian offered. They all hesitated, looking away. "Come on, it's not like I'm gonna drop you."   
Suprisingly, Patrick stepped forward. "I'd like to try..."   
"Hmm... scrawny little kid. Come on, then." He strode forward, scooped up Patrick and held him there lightly with one huge hand. "I'll barely notice you're there. Do you want me to carry you, or ride on my back?"   
Patrick was frozen with fear and was regretting speaking up. Damian lifted him, one handed, until his rather scared face was level with the hood. Patrick hung there for a moment, before a snort of hot air came from the hood and he was put down.   
"Sorry... didn't mean to scare you like that." He didn't sound like he meant it, though. "Still want to fly?"   
Pat gathered himself together and nodded. "On your back."   
The hooded form shrugged and crouched, turning his back, for Pat to get on. He hesitated a moment, but made up his mind and scrambled on. Damian straightened.   
"See you on the other side." He said, then the hood turned to the side. "Hang on tight, kid."   
The wings unfolded, Damian leapt, and they were airborne. Flapping slowly but powerfully, they gained altitude... and then shot across the ocean.   
The others watched on with various expressions. "We should get going, then?"   
"Right." Jess took off her backpack. "Would one of you mind taking that?"   
"Uh... okay. You gonna swim still?"   
"Suikun wants to have a splash around. And anyway, I should probably be there before you lot." She took off the fairly heavy jumper she wore and stuffed it into the pack, then handed it to Keira.   
"Seeya there."   
"Bye."   
She charged up to the choppy water and dived in. She hadn't had a good swim in months. The water was freezing... for a second, then warmed suddenly. Testing the water for depth, she found that it dropped off fairly steeply and was soon beyond walking in.   
Once she started swimming, she discovered that the waves were a little stronger than she'd at first thought. She hadn't swum for about a year now... the familiar strokes were coming back to her, but too slowly. The waves were choppy, the undercurrent strong, even though the sea was artificial. She felt herself pulled underwater.   
Choking, struggling, and clawing from the surface, she recieved a mental whack to the head from Suikun. _Breathe, girl. What do you think you're doing?_   
The shock of this message caused her to gasp with realisation. Water flooded into her mouth... and she found she could breathe it as easily as air, if rather thick.   
_You should've been able to figure that out, water-type._ Her guardian chided her. _Have some fun while you're at it. Liam's not a bad digger, but it'll take some time, I'm sure..._   
_ Not a bad idea at all, I'd say. _Jess replied, kicking. She soon found that she didn't even need to do that - her power over water allowed her to simply fiddle with the currents and be pushed wherever and however she wanted. Some part of her mind was protesting that this was cheating, but the rest of it was having far too much fun to pay attention.   
However, it was forced to pay a fair bit of attention when something slammed into the water above her. She panicked and thrashed, and something sharp tore along her arm. Then the presence was gone, leaving little more than a lot of turbulence in the water above her, which quickly faded.   
She tried to paddle upwards, then remembered that she could simply will it and it would happen, and did so. Once her head broke the surface, she pushed her long hair back from her face and scanned the skies for whatever had attacked her, and finding nothing.   
A loud screech from behind warned her, and she quickly spun around to face a Fearow, which had been just about to rake her skull open. She threw her arms up to protect her face.   
The creature's talons hooked around one arm, scratching it badly and yanking it backwards painfully... and pulling it fully out of it's socket. Jess yelped in pain as the arm slipped from the talons to hang limply and uselessly at her side. She used her other arm to aim an icebeam at the Fearow, but her arm was shaking with the shock and pain and she missed. The pokemon made a long sweep before coming back to dive again.   
She managed to strike it with a Water Gun, but it didn't even slow down. In desperation, she dived underwater, desperately trying to ignore the pain radiating from her arm, flopping around in the current. The claws raked her back, but not deeply. The cuts stung in contact with the salt water.   
She swam desperately towards the shore, mildly deranged from the pain, didn't think to go deeper. The Fearow missed her completely on the next attack, though she felt the turbulance pushing her back.   
It seemed to change tactics after that. No further attack came. She was beginning to think it had given up when the water around her began to churn a little stronger.   
She felt herself being pushed to one side. She fought against it, but her endurace wasn't at its height at the time and her powers were weakening. She found herself moving anyway. Suikun was yelling something, but she couldn't make it out. _Taken out by a little Fearow, how embarrassing._ The waters were moving faster now. She felt herself being dragged upwards too, and swirled around... Even through the pain haze she realised that the Fearow was using a whirlwind to churn the waters, in an effort to either bring her to the surface or putting her in rather deep trouble.   
She made some effort to struggle, but this only tired her out more. She found herself being pulled closer and closer to the surface...   
She felt her body seem to fade from her grip, and realised Suikun was taking control, concentrating her entire power on increasing the power of one part of the whirlpool. She was spun around once more then shot out like a rock from a sling, flying through the water at incredible speed away from the whirlpool.   
The downside of this was that it finally brought her to the surface.   
The Fearow screeched in triumph and shot down towards the helpless prey. Her face was up, she could see it coming, but she couldn't move. Didn't have a drop of energy left in her body. Suikun let out a low moan as the beak shot towards her...   
It was only a couple of feet from her face when the bird simply exploded.   
The blast pushed her underwater a bit, but she still saw quite clearly the flames as blood and smoke splashed everywhere. Half a wing flew off to her right. She fought the urge to throw up, but felt her body slowly floating to the surface. Seeing her enemy defeated gave her a little strength, and she twisted slightly to see what had happened.   
She was only about twenty metres from the bank, where a tall black-cloaked figure stood, one four-fingered hand held out. The fingers still flamed slightly. Lowering his arm, Damian's eyes flashed once, then his wings spread and he took off towards her.   
She felt herself sink into unconsciousness, and never felt the huge hand wrap around her wrist, pulling her to safety. 

~-~-~-~ 

"Ah, she's waking up." She heard Liam's voice as her unconsciousness faded away. She struggled to open her eyes, but still saw little more than a blur.   
"Just lie there for a while. You're not physically hurt, but Damian says you took quite a beating back there." She thought for a moment, then registered the voice as Patrick's. She closed her eyes, checked herself over... her arm was still aching somewhat, but it was nothing like it had been.   
She heard Damian's deep, quiet laugh, from some distance away. "You're lucky I grabbed your right arm. If I'd pulled your left I probably would've torn it off." A pause. "I put my hand in the _water_ for you. Be very, very grateful."   
Jess nodded weakly. She opened her eyes again, blinked... the blurs took a little more form, but she still couldn't see enough to make out anyone...   
A blur with blonde-green hair hovered right in front of her. _Keira,_ She thought, even as she spoke. "We've got to stop letting you go off like that, Jess. This is the second time we've had to rescue you."   
She gave a half-groan, half laugh, rather weakly. A low grunt sounded from the other side of the clearing, and a rush of hot air signalled Damian taking off. "I'm going scouting. Be back once you start moving."   
"How long do you reckon she'll be, Pat?" She heard Rob ask.   
"Dunno." There were sounds of shuffling feet, then his voice sounded much closer to her. "You should probably get a bit of rest. No point in waiting around. I can't cure fatigue."   
She smiled and nodded, though she felt so weak she wasn't sure if she'd actually moved her head or not. Slowly but surely, she felt reality fade into the dreamscape, where she quickly jumped up, full of energy.   
"Really, Jess... taken out by a Fearow." Suikun said, her voice oozing with mock shame.   
"Well, sorry... Some of us are still alive enough to feel pain."   
"Still." Suikun looked down on her, then her muzzle twisted into a canine sly grin.   
"What're you up t- whoa!"   
Her last words were cut off as she suddenly found herself immersed in water.   
_I'm not helping you this time, Jess... it's all up to you._ And she felt something plunge into the water above her, felt talons scrape along her arm.   
She surfaced hurriedly, automatically turning behind her to where she knew the Fearow to be. However, nothing was there... she spun around again, to see it coming from the direction she'd originally been facing.   
Trying not to panic, she aimed an Icebeam... and the Fearow dipped suddenly. The edges of its tail feathers frosted over, but it didn't seem to notice.   
The pokemon slammed into the water... and kept going, barely slowing down. Jess, not expecting this, was taken by suprise as it rammed her in the stomach, beak first. There was a sickening crack as its fragile neck snapped, but she barely heard it, distracted by her own scream, as the beak had rammed through her stomach like a knife.   
The scene faded, and she was once again in the endless black of the dreamscape. Suikun looked disappointed.   
"Really, that was pathetic." Jess looked down to see the mortal wound had vanished, but a memory of the crippling pain remained. "Best idea would've been to freeze the water around it. You own the water, Jess! You are a goddess of liquid and ice. In the water, of all times, you should be able to take on anything that attacks you. Now, let's try it again, and you'd better get it right this time..."

~-~-~-~

Jess slowly awoke after training with Suikun for some time. She found she was in a rather uncomfortable position, and was moving. Her vision cleared a lot faster this time, and she looked up to see that Liam was carrying her.  
"Ah, you're awake again. Think you can walk? You're heavier than you look, y'know."  
"Thanks, Liam..." She grinned as he carefully put her on her feet again. She stumbled slightly, but managed to keep her footing. "Where are we?"  
"We've only been walking for about ten minutes." Rob said, looking at his watch. "Vermillion city isn't far now. I'd be guessing it's populated by electric-types."  
"Hmm? What makes you say that?"  
"Firstly, the fact that the city used to be rather electricity-mad before Ash turned up." He continued. "The gymleader was-"  
"Lt. Surge, the 'Lightning American', old war veteran and quite a contender." Jess finished. She remembered going up against him. She'd actually had to go on and get other badges and pokemon, as most of her pokemon at the time had been electricity-weak. She had finally beaten him with Nidoqueen, by memory...  
"Exactly. And secondly, because of that." He pointed into the sky ahead.  
It seemed to be a concentrated storm. Lightning arced down out of the heavy cloud cover continually. The low rumble of thunder was almost constant, so much so that she hadn't noticed it.  
"Oooh, that can't be good."  
"Well, we've got no choice. We decided to come this way, we go this way. Let's move."


	18. Chapter 16

Untitled Ash looked at the sheepish-looking Scyther in front of him, an angry look on his face. _"Destroyed?!"_   
"Competely, sssir." The bladed bug cowered. "Flamesss and Lightningsss... No sssign of any humans..."   
"There's no way it could have been natural, though?"   
"Sssertainly not, sssir... the ssstorm appeared in a matter of minutesss, thunder ssstruck the towersss, killed the Kakunasss... The Beedrill went mad, sssir... The rainsss may have taken the firesss, but they ssstopped as sssoon as the sssity wasss flaming..."   
"Casualties?"   
"All of them, sssir." The Scyther just looked miserable.   
"WHAT?!"   
"All the Beedrill, all the Kakunasss, all the little Weedlesss... The Beedrillsss could have fled, sssir, but they were trying to sssave the othersss..."   
"And there was no ss... sign of the Vaekar?" Ash said, trying not to be infected by the hissing lisp of the pokemon   
"I flew to the Sssafari Sssone, and warned them, then came here, sssir. I did not ssspot the Vaekarsss, and there isss no way of telling if anyone elssse did..."   
"Safari Zone..." Ash pondered. "So the pokemon should be ready for them?"   
"Yes, sssir."   
"Good. Then we shall wait for word from the Safari Zone." Ash seemed very annoyed, and went to the window to find his Pidgeot looking right back at him.   
"Sir, I've got a Butterfree here who claims that the Vaekar have been captured at the Safari Zone!"   
"Or we won't wait. Let's go and meet these humans, then..." 

~-~-~-~ 

It hadn't been long before they'd run into the wind and rain.   
Jesse, Keira and Liam were reminded of the time they'd first met Rob. They'd been forced to charge through gale-force wind and rain to find where he was fighting off pokemon in an effort to save James. Although with him, the rain had gone from not there to _there_ with the force of a hailstorm - here it hazed in, getting stronger the further they went.   
"I'm guessing it's because there you've got a large amount of comparitively weak electric forces, wheras I'm a single very powerful force." Rob theorized, then shrugged. "Lots of power spread over a large area, lots of storm spread over a large area."   
Damian had called to them just before they'd entered the rain, flying just out of range of the rain. "I'm not going in that." He'd said, quite firmly. "Rain and thunder aren't exactly the perfect conditions for me. Meet you on the other side." And he'd flown off before any of them could argue, leaving them to fend for themselves.   
The rain got heavier and heavier, and everyone except Jess and Keira was crouching and covering their faces. They were nearly at the outskirts of the city, and they'd yet to see a sign of an electric pokemon - or any pokemon, for that matter.   
A bolt of lightning crashed down right behind them, causing them all to jump. But in the fading flash, they realised that the house behind them was topped by a tall, silver structure. A lightning rod... as they looked around, they saw that almost every building was equipped with such a device.   
"I suppose they want to keep the buildings standing..." Liam half-yelled over the rain.   
"Where are all the pokemon?" Jess asked.   
"Inside?" Rob suggested. "Thunder isn't something you use in heavy rain when surrounded by friends."   
"Then let's keep moving!" Liam said, before pressing on into the pouring rain, the dark streets lit by the occasional lightning flashes. The others followed after him.   
They'd been walking through the city for about five minutes when Liam suddenly stopped, holding the others back. When they looked at him questioningly, he pointed towards a house not too far ahead... light shone through one of the windows.   
"I'd say we avoid being seen by that one." Rob said. "I think we should probably go to the rig-h--t..."   
He trailed off as he looked to the right. A lightning flash had lit a huge tower located vaguely in the center of the town, reflecting off a huge collection of reflective surfaces. Through the rain, they could see a large quantity of dim lights shining in that direction...   
"What do you lot think you're doing, standing around?" A voice hissed to them. They all started and spun around to see a hunched figure with a green, water-proof raincoat that reached down to his toes. "You're going to get in trouble! You know they don't like us socializing, or being late... are you lost or something? Where do you work here?"   
"Huh?"   
"You don't even have coats on?" The hood shook side to side, annoyed. "You recent captures, or..." One hand reached out to brush Jess's long, soaked hair aside. The hand froze as lightning flashed, illuminating her.   
"You... you're not prisoners, and you have... follow me. Quickly!"   
He spun around and set into a crouching run. They looked at each other, confused and shocked to see a human wandering around freely, then set off after him.   
The green form was almost invisible in the gloom, and they nearly lost him once, Pat calling them back down a side street which they'd all passed after seeing him in a lightning flash.   
He came to a door, threw it open, waved them inside urgently before following himself. He flicked a light switch on, taking off his soaking coat and hanging it on the handle. Beneath it was a skinny man of fairly average height, with short curly black hair and heavy grey clothes. He looked scared, but curious, as he reached out towards Jess's neck...   
She grabbed his hand in an iron grip before he got close. "What do you want?"   
"Your... that thing around your neck..."   
She looked down to see the brilliant sapphire amulet that was Suikun's soul. The guardian gave out a slight feeling of mock pride.   
"What about it?"   
"You're the ones that are attacking back, aren't you? Vaekar... 'Humans with amulets and the power of many pokemon'... The pokemon have been talking about you... they don't care what we hear."   
"Yeah, that's us..."   
"You can fight the pokemon?"   
"Ask those in Fuschia... the entire place was razed to the ground." Liam grinned, though there was little humour in it.   
"A-amazing..." The man suddenly clapped a hand to his neck and groaned. "Not _now_! Oh damn... Listen, you lot have to stay here. I've got to get going, my master wants me... I'll have someone sent to you. Don't leave this house, don't touch _anything_, leave the lights off... I know you lot can fight, but this place is full of traps and the entire city's on maximum security... it's a wonder you got this far. Someone will be with you soon; I'll be seeing you later, I hope." With that, he swung the coat back on, switched off the light and closed the door. They could hear his footsteps for a moment, but they were soon lost in the endless, pattering rain.   
"Umm..."   
"I think we should do what he says." Pat piped up.   
"Yeah... I'm sorta curious about this..."   
_We can afford to take a break... we're not in any great hurry. _The amulets agreed. _So long as Ash doesn't know that we're here..._   
"Okay... We'll take a break, get some rest." Jess ordered. "I'll take first watch. Get some sleep..." 

~-~-~-~ 

Ash ran up to the devastated wall of the prison, looking inside and seeing the carnage. Two Pinsir stood inside, looking rather suprised at Ash's arrival.   
"Master Ash, sir." They both bowed.   
"What... what happened here? Did you not capture the human attackers?"   
"We did, sir." The larger one replied, rather hesitant. The second cowered - scorch marks decorated his brown exoskeleton.   
"And they escaped?"   
"Y-yes, sir."   
Ash's eyes narrowed. "Where is-" and then gave out a nearly unpronounceable series of hissing, high-pitched syllables.   
"O-over here, sir." The Pinsir, shaking and with head bowed, led Ash to one of the cells where the bodies of the bugs slain by the attackers lay. He waved inside - the great Scyther warrior lay apart from the others.   
Ash moved over to the bug, taking in the horrible hole in the torso, the missing blades. "How did this happen? Which of the humans did this?"   
"No human did that, sir."   
"What?"   
"There was another... A st-strange creature c-captured in the Safari Zone... I-it walked like a human, b-but had wings and a-a tail like a Ch-charizard and was black all over..."   
"WHAT?!"   
The Pinsir cowered and stuttered. "I-it charged into the Zone and b-began killing everything in s-sight... I'm told the B-butterfree used S-sleep p-powder to neutralize it. They d-dragged it in and designed a ch-chamber to hold it... Th-th-they put its t-tail in a s-small chamber, i-in a tank of w-water, so that if i-it tried to e-escape the f-flame would be extinguished... W-we sent a messenger to you, reporting this..."   
"And what happened?"   
"The Ch-charizard-human e-escaped somehow... He did th-that to the Scyther... Th-then he released the r-rest of the h-humans, including the V-vaekar... We set off the al-larm, every p-pokemon in the S-safari Zone took chase..."   
"And?"   
"We haven't heard from them since, sir."   
"How long ago was this?"   
"Only a few hours... We couldn't keep up with the charge, so we came back to clean up around here. We assumed someone would be back sometime to take a message to you, but there's been no sign..."   
Ash growled and turned away, muttering. "Damian... this was not what I had in mind..."   
"They ran that way, sir." The Pinsir pointed, a direction slightly diagonal to the hole blown in the wall. "The rest of the humans escaped too..."   
"I'll send a team to take care of that." Ash strode out of the half-destroyed prison. "Pidgeot!"   
"Yes, master?" The huge bird fluttered down beside him.   
"Get back to my castle. I want a small group sent down here to recapture the humans immediately."   
"Yes, master. Anything else?"   
"Send a small attack team to Vermillion. The Vaekar should be there soon."   
"Small attack team?"   
"Just enough to make them nervous. Let them know that I know where they are."   
"How do you know they're in Vermillion?"   
"I don't. But they seem to be heading north... and they're going to recieve a nasty shock anyway when they get to Saffron..."   
"Yes, master. What about you?"   
"I have some business to attend to down here... I will call you when I need you."   
"Yes, master." The bird flapped powerfully, before shooting off over the treetops back towards Ash's fortress.   
Ash stood still, sniffed the air carefully. A second later, his eyes snapped open and he was gone, leaving nothing behind but a trail of broken branches and a heavy gust of wind where he'd stood...   
Travelling at the incredible speeds he was capable of, following the scent given off by angry Butterfree and Venomoth, the traces of powder scattered in preparation for battle, he found the field where the battle had taken place. A huge pile of bodies lay over one area, and the entire place was rather scorched - although there was a section that was still frozen solid.   
Ash scanned the pile of bodies, and several others that lay scattered around the clearing. There was no sign of any frozen bugs. That didn't prove much, Damian's fire attacks would be more than enough to melt any frozen corpses, and there were plenty of crispy bugs in the heap... but most of them seemed to have been killed by some sort of blade, cleanly chopped in half.   
He looked sadly across the carnage. "You will pay for this, humans. I will not forget the destruction of so many of my pokemon..."   
Speeding off, back to the prison, Ash slowed to normal pace and walked up to the Pinsir still walking around. "This strange Charizard-human you speak of... did it have any sort of weapon?"   
"It had two swords." The Pinsir nodded. "We found them when he was captured, took them off him. No point in giving him a way to attack..."   
"And where are they now?"   
The pokemon pointed. They had been put in a wooden case, which was broken and covered in scorch marks. One sword remained in it, the other embedded in the wall nearby.   
"He didn't take them?"   
"He went over, picked one out, then threw it into the wall."   
Ash suddenly looked interested. "So he didn't have any sort of weapon when he left?"   
"Y-yes he did, sir."   
"He did? What weapon?"   
"He killed the Scyther, took its blades, sir. Then left."   
Ash was crestfallen. "It can't be... he would never..."   
"Do you know who... what that creature was, sir?"   
"Yes... And I feel I've either changed him too much, or not enough. Either that, or he's a lot more intelligent than I suspected..." Ash sighed. "You've done well. Not too many survive direct encounters with the Vaekar, as you've seen. The team should be here fairly soon... The safest place will probably be around here for a while. They're heading north, and I can't see them being eager to return here for any reason..."   
"Thank you, sir." The Pinsir bowed again, as much as the still exoskeleton would allow, as Ash slowly walked once again out the hole in the wall... then suddenly called out, "There was one more thing, sir..."   
Ash turned back. "Yes?"   
"There was a pokemon with the Vaekar when we captured them. A Meowth. He was co-operating with them..."   
"Really?" Ash looked bemused, then suddenly suprised. "Did you see him yourself?"   
"Yes, sir."   
"Did he have a strange accent, a bit of a drawl...?"   
"Umm... I didn't hear it speak, sir. Sorry."   
"Damn... In the group of Vaekar, was there a tall, thin woman with long red hair, pushed off to the side somewhat?"   
"No, sir. There were only two females, a tall black-haired one and a short yellow-green haired-one."   
"A man with purple hair, then?"   
The pokemon brightened somewhat. "Yes, there was one like that. He had long purple hair, tied at the back."   
"Tied..." Ash shrugged. "I suppose it has been four or five years since I last saw him... Where is the Meowth?"   
"We sent him to you, sir. Two Beedrill, and a Butterfree to make sure he didn't wake up... They would be flying slowly, with that weight, but they should be at your fortress sooner or later..."   
"Meowth and James... How very interesting."   
"Glad I could be of some help, sir..." The Pinsir said as Ash set off once more, pondering these events, before heading south to see the wreckage of Fuschia City. 

~-~-~-~ 

They were up to their third watch, Keira, when Florasaur's gargantuan form entered the dreamscape, saying "They're here," before fading again. The others quit their training session and leapt back into reality, where two people stood, taking off coats identical to the ones their other guide had worn. One was a tall, thick-built man with thick, curly grey hair, including beard and mustache; the other was a somewhat shorter but still thick-built woman, with an even thicker mop of curly, bright red-orange hair.   
"Frank told us you'd be here." The man said, setting a heavy sack on the ground. "My name's Russell, and this is my wife Judy..."   
"Liam." He shook the local's outstretched hand. The rest of them introduced themselves, there was an expectant silence, then Judy spoke up.   
"Frank... he said you were the Vaekar. Is that true?"   
"Wha... Vaekar?" They all looked rather confused.   
"Yeah... the other guy called us that too. What does it mean?"   
"You don't know?" Russell was slightly suprised. "It's what the pokemon call... well, you, I'm assuming. Humans that can attack with the powers of pokemon, but far more powerful. It means something like 'feared enemy' in one pokemon language or another, I'm not sure. Some pokemon are really afraid that you'll come here, some use the name sarcastically, not believing that humans could ever resist..." He trailed off, looking at them hopefully.   
"Uh... yeah, I guess that's us."   
"Good, good... Maybe you can help us while you're here..."   
"I think we'd need a few questions of our own answered first." Rob put in.   
"Oh... yes, okay. What do you need to know?"   
"Why do the pokemon let you walk about freely, when you could escape?"   
"...Ah, that. They don't, as such."   
"Hmm?"   
Russell pulled the collar of his jumper down, showing a thin band of metal around his neck. "The pokemon made these. Look, this entire city is one giant power plant. We're supplying the power for Ash's operations practically everywhere, between the lightning bolts and the electric pokemon that live here. Because of this, there's a huge aura of power just hanging over the entire place. If we wander outside the city, the collars sense that we're leaving because we're moving out of the aura, and electrocute us..."   
Judy shuddered. "We've seen what happened to someone who tried to leave the city. It's a long, painful death. He was screaming and twitching for over an hour before he finally died. The pokemon made us all watch, to make sure we knew what would happen if we tried..."   
"They've also got a calling device, and a homing device." Russell said sadly. "We've all been assigned to pokemon. If they want us, the collars tell us about it. If we don't come, they can tell where we are, or they can just make sure we know where our loyalties lie..."   
"We both work in the main tower, but Frank is the personal slave of some lazy Raichu. He always looks nervous and jumpy, and it's for a reason..."   
"I'm guessing they've got defences against taking the collar off?"   
"Touching the collar gives you a mild shock. Holding on to the collar is rather painful. Trying to pull the collar off?" Judy shook her head. "You'd be dead before you got close. Even if you managed to break it, it'd sense that it was broken and administer a Thunderwave-sorta thing to anyone touching it, and would inform the pokemon who controlled it. And even if you managed to get past that, if you were seen in this city without a collar, you'd be in huge trouble... We're lucky Frank spotted you before any pokemon did."   
"The pokemon don't like going out into the rain, so they send us to do everything. We've got a fair bit of freedom... and one thing the pokemon have luckily failed to do is set up some sort of security network around the city."   
"That's a relief."   
"So we've managed to keep ahead of them. We've got a plan that'll bring the entire operations here grinding to a halt..."   
"Really? What sort of thing do you have in mind?"   
The two of them grinned, and Russell held out the bulky sack he held over his shoulder, the same colour as the coat they'd worn. "Take this, and go down here." He kicked aside a rug, revealing a rough trapdoor in the floor, which he pulled open with some effort. "The less we go down there with the collars on, the less likely it is we'll be found out."   
"What?"   
"Don't worry. There's a friend down there. He'll explain everything. We don't want to be found here. Go!"   
They did as the duo said, one by one moving down into the hole in the floor. Russell lowered the sack down after them, then closed the trapdoor.   
Dim lights ran across the walls of the corridor before them. Seeing no other alternative than to investigate further, they set off... 

~-~-~-~ 

Ash stood at the boundry of where the great beedrill hives had once stood.   
Now, it was a black and barren wasteland.   
The black ground was sticky and sickly, thick burnt stringshot. Not a single structure had survived, not even a stump. A few burnt Beedrill husks could be seen some distance from the city, but none within the black landscape. Stringshot burns hard and well, and anything in that inferno could never have survived...   
Ash swallowed as he walked back and forth, surveying the damage... but there wasn't really much to survey. The city stretched further than he could see in both directions, but the fires had been fierce and had taken the entire place...   
"This is awful... how could anyone do such a thing?"   
"S-s-sir master Ash!" He looked up from the horrible ground to see a Pidgey flying erratically towards him. He held out an arm for it to rest on, and it flapped suddenly back.   
"Oh, no, sir, I couldn't!"   
"Don't worry about it." Ash smiled kindly.   
"Th-thank you sir!" It babbled, shivering with the honour of doing this.   
"What do you want, little one?"   
"Please sir... there's a Sandslash, further south. It's badly hurt. It's body is healed... well, not completely, but as much as we can, it still looks a mess... but it seems insane... It doesn't move much, just lies there chanting that it needs to see you... 'Must go to Ash, must go to Ash...' I think it ran into the humans, the Vaekar... I heard that you had come down here to see what happened, and I just thought you'd like to know..." The bird looked frightened, almost guilty, as if it might be in trouble for suggesting that the master and god of all pokemon take time out of his life to see this one pokemon...   
Ash looked concerned. "Where is this?"   
"Follow me, I'll show you..."   
"No, just tell me. I'll have us there in no time..."   
The Pidgey looked around. "That way." He pointed with a wing.   
"Hang on tight..." Ash grinned and cradled the bird close, before setting off at the incredible speeds he was capable of, to see this injured Sandslash...   
  
  



	19. Chapter 17

DC17 "Who's there?!" A voice cried out, causing all of them to jump. A shadowy figure could be seen ahead of them, not quite visible in the dim light.   
"Uh... friends?" Jess called back hopefully.   
"Hmm... six of you? What do you think you're doing? The pokemon will pick up six signals here together in no time! Do you want us to be fou-"   
"Don't worry, we haven't got collars." Liam said. "We were just passing through town and some guy led us here..."   
"Why should I believe that? No free human would be stupid enough to come into a town packed with pokemon!"   
"Please, we can explain..." Keira stepped forward. A green blast of energy issued from the figure ahead of them and hit the wall next to her, and she froze.   
"Don't come any closer, because the next shot won't be a warning. Now..."   
Two lines of sparkling energy, one light blue and the other yellow, shot out and struck the wall on either side of the figure, freezing and burning the walls respectively. Jess spoke. "I'm fairly sure that we could find a way to stop that weapon of yours, but for general convenience I think it would be best if you threw it down..."   
"You... how did you..."   
"The weapon, please."   
There was a pause, then the sound of something skidding across the smooth tiles. "Thank you. Now... Two people, named Judy and Russell, I believe... they told us to come down here, and that someone would tell us some great plan to slow down the pokemon operations here..."   
"...Russell sent you... right, then. I... I'll explain everything... if you'll explain to me how you did that..."   
"Sounds like a fair trade." Keira smiled, and held up a hand, which suddenly glowed with a greenish-yellow light, illuminating the passage somewhat better. They finally got a glimpse of the man - a tall but fairly slim man with a rather angular build and short grey hair over a rather tired but curious expression. He wore a rather dissheveled, dirty suit, with a tie which hung loose around his neck.   
"They told us to give you this." Liam held out the heavy sack he held. The man suddenly brightened and walked up to take the sack, glancing all the while at the glow around Keira's hand. Once he had the sack, he bent down and scooped up the device he'd kicked across, aimed it at himself, and fired.   
They cried out in protest, but the green energy had no effect, just splashed out over him and vanished. "It doesn't have any affect on humans. I'm sorry I had to bluff, but the pokemon suspect some sort of resistance, and there are some humans who willingly do the work of the pokemon, and would reveal us..." He pocketed it.   
"So it does have an affect on pokemon?"   
"Only certain types. In fact, only two types." He grinned and walked off further down the corridor, then turned suddenly into a doorway that was nearly invisible in the low light. Swinging open a door, he ushered them in.   
"And the two types are?"   
He just grinned, and closed the door behind them. He fiddled with the ties on the sacks, then opened it, showing the round, red-and-white contents to the assembled newcomers.   
"Voltorb and Electrode." 

~-~-~-~ 

Ash's Pidgeot broke out of the supersonic speeds it had been travelling over the fortress, and soared down to issue the orders given by its master. A few of the stronger grass pokemon were selected, along with some psychics to transport them, and were sent to the Safari Zone to hunt down the runaway humans.   
However, he found himself with an interesting choice when it came to the others, the Vaekar. What to use to attack them? So many choices...   
There was the next creation of Ash's, the new half-human he'd created... but it wasn't ready yet, and plus it wouldn't be very useful in the Vermillion environment. So something water-based, for preference... but something not afraid of lightning, and something powerful enough to fight them...   
There was really only one pokemon that could possibly fit those requirements. 

~-~-~-~ 

Over the next hour or two, they explained the theory of the amulets and Guardians to the scientist, and he returned information: They in turn learnt that he was named Jeffrey, and his story was long, complicated, and interesting.   
Once a scientist at Silph in Saffron, he'd left when Team Rocket had taken over the operations, and he'd refused to co-operate. Barely escaping with his life in the catastrophic takeover, he'd run to Cerulean, closely chased by the Rocket's agents to make sure he remained silenced. He managed to get into a transport system built long ago and barely used that ran between Cerulean and Vermillion, and had hidden out here ever since.   
He'd built a complicated security system around Vermillion, slowly and quietly, over the years. Tiny cameras showed many sections of both the underground and the overground of the soaking city.   
"The pokemon haven't actually noticed yet that we're using their electricity to power this operation down here... I designed these a long time ago, before Team Rocket took over." He held up the energy gun he'd bluffed Keira with. "They were the main reason I didn't want to give my services over to Team Rocket. They stun the Voltorb, put them in an enforced sleep, lasts a day or so... and once they're unconscious, it opens their programming subsceptibility. We can program them to remain asleep, and explode whenever we want..."   
"So you're planning to gather a few of them up, and then set them off together as a high-power bomb?"   
"Let's just say... a few more than a few." He flicked a switch. Lights across the room flicked on, and metal doors clicked aside to reveal shelves upon shelves of sleeping, red-and-white pokemon. They just stared goggle-eyed at them for a while.   
"How... how did you get so many without the pokemon noticing?"   
"The tower you see over there, as well as many of the houses, are home to hundreds, thousands of Voltorb. They make up the majority of the pokemon here, the others just here to oversee. The entire purpose of this city is for power generation, and as you probably know, power plants are really the only places you find the things. A stray Voltorb here or there goes unnoticed, and if you'd been to the tower you'd see that this is just a stray Voltorb here and there. The Electrodes are easier to miss, but we've still collected a few."   
"So when do you plan to attack?"   
"Soon, I feel. We've yet to find a way to move all these Voltorb to the actual site..."   
"I think we might be able to help in that regard..." Liam grinned.   
"Really? You would? Thank you, that will make our job much, much easier... and I'm sure it will assist you in future too..."   
"Do you know if they're planning anything?"   
"The others that come down have heard rumours that the pokemon are having trouble in Saffron City, and believe that they are planning something there."   
"Trouble in Saffron..."   
"Yes."   
"Did you say there was a transport leading from here to Cerulean?"   
"There was such a transport, yes. However, it's not working at present. The rail line is broken somewhere, and I haven't got time to fix that."   
"Damn... we'll have to go through Saffron anyway."   
"The working around here will take some time. I'll have the word spread around that you lot are to be brought some of the coats everyone wears, so you blend in. So long as you stick in ones and twos, and don't call too much attention to yourselves, you should be fine here for a while. We have people on every level of the tower and in every house, and the pokemon haven't gotten around to detailing a list of who needs to be where and when... And since you six don't have the collars, you can go anywhere without raising too much suspiscion. The pokemon have put too much trust in the things, and that's a mistake they might live to regret..." 

~-~-~-~ 

They stayed for a couple of days working, once they'd obtained a set of disguises. Liam and Jess worked in the howling rain around the great tower, Jess concentrating the rain around them to reduce visibility while Liam dug holes in which to conceal the living bombs.   
The problem with this was that no matter how much Liam claimed to be invincible, the water to which he was weak was wearing him down, no matter how slowly. Several times Jess had been forced to assist Liam back to their hideout for recovery through rest and Patrick's healing powers, though he strongly denied needing her help.   
Keira, Rob and James worked inside the tower. It was a useful fact that humans were actually required to move the Voltorb around the plant, increasing the power in some areas and decreasing it in others; It was a simple matter to put the captured Voltorb next to others - Rob and Jeffrey had teamed up to make the small remote used to signal the Voltorb nearly invisible, and program them to appear awake and normal; soon the tower was riddled with ticking bombs, waiting for Jeffrey to press the button...   
Unfortunately, something else decided to butt into their little operation. It was Frank, the first person they'd met in Vermillion, who warned them of the danger, though he wasn't very clear when he burst wildly into the hidden room of the corridor. Everyone except Jess was there at the time.   
"Frank, you know you're not supposed to come down here..." Jeff started sternly, but then saw the frantic look on his friend's face.   
"Ash... Ash sent some pokemon here... to find the Vaekar..." He panted. "They're at my master's house, talking it over. He'll want me back. You have to get out of here! You can't let him know where you are!" And with that, he ran back off, presumably to return to do his master's bidding.   
"Ash sent some pokemon here to find us?" Rob looked up from a long device he was building with Jeff's help..   
"Looks like it. How could he know that we're here?" Keira pondered.   
"I'm guessing he doesn't." Liam said confidently. "He's probably just traced our work so far. By all rights, we should be well on our way to Saffron by now, but we stayed to help these guys. He's probably just noticed that we haven't caused any major destruction here... if we keep a low profile, then they won't know that we're here, and they'll move on."   
"So we slow down our operations a bit?" Jeff asked, thinking.   
"Just stop doing things like the digging. Keep our work to the inside, stuff that's not too suspiscious. Get your other guys to do some of the work. If he's sending people to find you, it stands to reason they're going to be watching the streets, and the only reason we had so much success before is because they weren't doing that. So..."   
There was a pause, then Jeff spoke again. "Frank didn't say what sort of pokemon he sent."   
"Whatever it is, I'm sure we'll be able to take it."   
"We've never been unable to fight something before."   
"Anyway, if he's got any brains at all, he'll be using something suitable to the environment, water probably. We've got Keira and Rob here..."   
"What's the worst that could happen?" 

~-~-~-~ 

The streets were silent, and wet. Very wet. Around this area, something had clogged a lot of the drains, and one had to wade through water halfway to your knee. Not that this bothered Jess.   
She knew what had clogged the drains. Many of the sewers around here were now quite well packed with sleeping Voltorb. She'd frozen them over to keep them from premature discovery - in the dark conditions, even if you flashed electricity on it you'd simply see a shiny surface, and probably assume it was water - but they'd decided that the chances of the electric-types checking the drains - especially when this much water was present - was minimal.   
So the area around the tower was now rather wet. Although this only meant mild inconvenience for humans, for the usually-small electric types this was a very large problem. Voltorbs - whether the humans had been at them or not - floated around on the continually altering currents, letting out occasional electric bursts which damaged anyone nearby. Pikachu were forced to desperately doggy-paddle, and Raichu moved with much difficulty. Many houses near the tower had been abandoned by the pokemon.   
So as Jess moved out of another drain, having placed and frozen another half-dozen voltorbs within, she wasn't particularally expecting to be seen by anyone. She clambered out from underwater, wrung some of the water out of her hair (only to have it immediately replaced by the rain) and almost ran into the shape behind her.   
"Is that you, Liam?" She asked. She knew, before she'd finished, that it wasn't - it was far too bulky side-to-side. The darkness obscured her view, and she couldn't tell what it was...   
"What is your business here, human?" A low, nasal voice sounded from the darkness. It seemed to echo in the air around her, confusing her slightly.   
"Uh... my master told me to investigate the problem with the drainage system." She improvised wildly. The strange creature didn't appear impressed with this explaination.   
"Your master? Who is your master?"   
"Um..." She was lost for a moment as she tried to recall any clue as to a master's name, finding none, so improvised again. "They don't tell us their names. Just master."   
This seemed a little more acceptable to the unknown pokemon before her. "Did you find the problem?"   
"N-no. I can't see underwater, especially in this darkness." She lied. "You'll have to call in a water-type to fix it."   
"Indeed." The shadowy creature said. There was a long pause.   
"I should be getting back to my master... She'll want me to report..."   
"Where does your master live?"   
Jess, not expecting this question, waved her hand in the first direction she thought of - back towards the underground path. The air temperature seemed to drop, and she knew that hadn't been the right answer.   
"That sector of the city is not very heavily populated, and those houses that are lived-in are used by Voltorb and Mangemite." It said. "While those pokemon do have some servants, I find it very difficult to believe that you would refer to them as 'she'..."   
"My master takes care of the Voltorb in that area." She tried wildly - after all, it was partially true. "They were having trouble getting here, and he wanted to know-"   
"You are _lying_, human. Why are you lying to me?" It loomed suddenly. She backed off, and suddenly bumped into something, whirled around - there was another one, very similar. She backed away to the side until she could see both of them.   
"I... I..."   
"Let me see your collar. They tell me that they're very useful..."   
She gulped, knowing that to refuse would be as good as showing her bare neck. She'd have to fight her way out of this. She nodded carefully, letting icy energy charge up in each hand, trying to keep the ice-blue glow hidden in her coat.   
One arm reached forward to move her long, sodden hair out of the way, push her coat collar down. She felt the limb stiffen suddenly, and threw one of her attacks at the pokemon.   
It was blown back by the blast of ice, and let out an unearthly scream that echoed and re-echoed off everything. Windows shattered and walls shook, and Jess cried out and held her hands over her ears in shock and pain. She only just saw the other one start moving towards her in time, and her second blast of ice knocked it back too, and redoubled the awful scream.   
She turned and ran as electric pokemon started moving out of their houses to see what the noise was about. Two more of the huge shadowy creatures loomed out from the gloom, and she managed to dodge around the first and knock the second out of her way with a low-powered blast of ice. _Damn damn damn..._   
She ran quickly and seemingly randomly, letting Suikun guide her steps as she concentrated on avoiding further discovery by the pokemon. Five quick icebeams created a set of handholds which she used to climb onto the rooftops of the city. She lay on the roof for a while, catching her breath and waiting for the hype in the city to go down.   
_Seen... damn, they know we're here now. Have to warn the others..._ Suikun whispered.   
_ What were those things? Not electric-types, no thunderer's that big. _Jess thought about it for a moment. _Bloody wordy for a pokemon too._   
_ Probably the last thing we need around here. We're lucky that we're the ones that had to fight them, none of the others would've been able to do much damage..._   
_ What were they?_   
_ Probably the most powerful pokemon around, bar us Guardians and the birds... Dragonites...___

~-~-~-~ 

"Jess, at last! We've been waiting for you for ages!" James exclaimed.   
"Listen, we've just had reports of Ash sending a group of pokemon here to try to find us, we have to-"   
"I know, I've just encountered them." Jess said wearily, flopping down on one of the chairs. "They're Dragonites, at least four of them. I hit two of them, but from what Suikun tells me, they've got enough endurance to shrug that off no problem."   
Everyone just stood in shock for a moment, then there was a combined, dejected groan.   
"That's the end of my idea." Liam noted. "If they know that we're here now, they won't rest until they hunt us down."   
"You should get out of here. If they find this place and attack, then we'll lose you and the whole operation. Dragonites are about the strongest pokemon around. They're resistant to practically everything, not to mention having enough power to lay out almost any attacker..."   
"And they live underwater. This rain won't affect them like it does the pokemon."   
"Do we have enough of the Voltorb placed to be able to take out the tower yet?" Keira looked to Jeff.   
"I'm not sure. I'd like there to be more. Most of the ones we've placed are near the top and around the base, so we're sure to do some damage... but they'll be able to rebuild it. If we could get some in the base and crumble the whole thing..."   
"Well, that looks to be rather difficult at the moment. Maybe we should just set off what we've got now?"   
"We could at least try to get everyone out first. And I think I'd rather have you lot out of the city before that thing goes off."   
"Hmmm..."   
"Guys!" A teenage girl with brown hair poked her head around the door. "Martial law's been declared. All humans are required to stay in the dwellings of their respective owners. The new pokemon are just about to search this area of town. Make sure you don't get caught. Just thought you should know." She ran off again.   
"Shit!" Jeff cursed. "If the pokemon are out in force here, then we've got to move."   
"Or we could make life as difficult for them as we possibly can..." Rob said. He made a few final adjustments to the device he had been working on. "I think this is finished. This thing's powerful enough to fend off at least one of the things for a while..."   
"What is it?" Liam asked.   
Rob grinned and stalked off towards the shelves of Voltorb, picked one out and disconnected the device that kept it docile. He carried it over to the long tube, and rolled the spherical pokemon in one end. With some difficulty, he hefted the device onto his shoulder.   
"Heavy weaponry. Voltorbs programmed to explode on contact. I'm sure several Explosions in the face would slow down a pokemon, no matter how powerful."   
"Nice..." Liam examined the home-made bazooka. "Can I use it?"   
"Sure, but don't fire it in here..." Rob gave the weapon to him. "Point, aim, pull and hold that bar there. It has to draw electricity out of the Voltorb to gather the energy to fire it, so you have to hold it a while. I'm not sure what kind of backlash you'll get, but I'm sure you can handle it."   
Liam grinned. "Let's go hunting."   



	20. Chapter 18

DC18 Still the rain pelted down, perhaps harder than ever, and visibility was at its lowest. Even the frequent thunderbolts did little to light the gloom, doing nothing more than throw confusing shadows, making the humans jump at almost anything... And with the endless noise of rain and thunder, they could barely communicate with each other, let alone hear anything sneaking up on them.   
The result? Paranoia at its finest.   
They knew the Dragonites were out there somewhere. The haunting song of the pokemon would occasionally echo over everything, somehow unaffected by the constant noise. However, it was always impossible to tell what direction it came from.   
Only Jess and, to a far more limited degree, James, had any chance of seeing through the gloom. Liam was beginning to wear down, between the effects of water and the heavy weapon he carried. Rob and Jeff lugged along sacks of living ammunition behind him.   
They lay in wait some distance from their hideout and stood atop a building, so they could see more of the city. Keira, Liam and Jess had made some attempts at creating a shelter, though they had done their best to make it all but invisible. They had agreed that they wanted to catch the Dragonite by suprise if possible, and a Dragon Rage attack on their shelter would not be good news for them.   
But boredom was setting in now, and not even Jess or James had spotted any of the powerful pokemon sent to hunt them. The cold and wet was getting to those vulnerable to it.   
"We need something to lure one of them here..." Jess muttered to herself. James turned to her.   
"Lure? A decoy or something?" He asked. Jess looked up in suprise, not realizing she'd said it loud enough for anyone to hear.   
"What if we set one of these off nearby?" Jeff suggested, holding up the sack of Voltorb.   
"...No, they don't know about our control of the Voltorb yet." Liam said, sighting along the length of the heavy tube. "I'd prefer that came as an explosive shock..."   
"Well, we're not going to have one of us run out in the open..."   
"Maybe we could use this place as a lure." Rob looked at the open dome in which they sat. "If we can put a fire or something in it, then shoot whatever comes to investigate?"   
"I guess that would work... they'd be immediately suspicious of any fire they saw, especially outside."   
"Relocation time!"   
It took some work by Keira to move everyone over to the next flat rooftop. Rob sparked a fire with some dry branches Keira had - with considerable difficulty - conjured. Keira barely had time to vinelift Rob to the next rooftop before one of the pokemon let out a call, alarmingly close by.   
"Ready, Liam?" Rob whispered to him. He nodded. Jess watched, ready to unleash some heavy ice attacks if necessary. Everyone held their breath...   
A shadow flicked in front of the fire. Jess stared at it closely, but couldn't see it... but its identity was soon affirmed as the Dragonite's song rang out.   
Liam slammed the trigger bar back, and held it. There was an almost inaudible whine, a crackling of electricity, then a 'whump' as the red-and-white missile shot towards the flame.   
The explosion lit up the night, filling the air with smoke and steam. In the flaming aftermath, Jess looked for any sign of the surely injured Dragonite or any others, while the others worked to frantically reload the gun.   
Another shape soon showed up against the light, flying down further, near the buildings. Jess shot up and threw a whirling mass of icy energy at it. The Dragonite roared in pain as the attack hit and immediately caused the rain around to be frozen, causing a localized blizzard attack around it. The white, crackling cold energy gave Liam enough of a target to aim at.   
Another 'whump' as the Voltorb shot out and... missed its target. It shot into the wall next to the Dragonite and exploded there, and the power of the blast threw the weakened dragon into the opposite building, along with a great deal of rubble. Both buildings collapsed somewhat.   
"That's enough! Run now!"   
The twin screams of the Dragonites, rebounding off walls at a horrible volume, made the going confusing. Jess kept watching for any following pokemon, but all she could think of was getting away from that noise and out of sight.   
They soon found they were going the wrong way, as the screams faded somewhat. However, that wasn't the biggest of their problems - another Dragonite got in their way. Seeing them, it sang out a warning, and at the same time, a blue, flickering glow began to show in its throat.   
Keira was the first to act. She shot a Leech Seed straight into the gaping maw, and it immediately sprouted a heap of life-sucking vines which wrapped around the face of the creature... as well as several which shot straight down the throat.   
The Dragonite, blinded, choking and impotent, writhed around for a moment as it tried to pull the constricting vines from its head. The humans just stood there watching it for a moment, then Jess threw an icebeam at its feet, freezing it to the ground, and they ran again.   
James had a sudden idea and sped up to run alongside Jess, yelling his plan to her. It took her a moment to understand what he was saying, but once she got it she skidded to a halt.   
The others slowed and jogged back, wondering what she was up to. James explained his idea very quickly as Jess gathered energy, then shot a huge blast of near-invisible energy into the sky.   
The temperature suddenly dropped alarmingly. For some distance from the attack, the heavy rain turned into heavier hailstones, and what water there was on the ground threatened to freeze - as well as the water soaking the humans. Jess held her position for a moment, strengthening the web of coldness, then slumped slightly, panting.   
"Dragons hate cold and ice! We should be safe now!" She shouted over the clatter of flying drops of ice, then ran again. The others followed.   
'Safe' turned out to be a bit optimistic. The hail was extremely painful, even through the thick protective coats they wore, and the ice and stones underfoot made running treacherous. Jess led them carefully and they eventually managed to find their way to their hideout, inside and out of the rain, safe from the Dragonites for now.   
"Did we take any of them out?"   
"Not sure... we saw three, right? Did some serious damage to all of them. Any of them could be dead, or out of the fight at least... Might have damaged more in that ice storm..."   
"We'll never be able to tell until we see them."   
"Right."   
"And considering we don't know how many of them there were to begin with anyway..." Keira grimaced with pain as she took off her coat, as the bruises from the hailstones began to show through. Patrick hurried over and did his best to heal her, having already dealt with his own minor injuries.   
"Leave that thing here." Jeff instructed, motioning to the weapon. "Don't want to have to lug it all the way in an emergency of some sort."   
"What if they find it?"   
"They shouldn't recognize it for what it is. They're pokemon, and most likely wild ones - you don't exactly see a lot of trained Dragonites - and probably don't understand guns... Anyway, they've got a lot of ground to cover, and won't be looking too closely... we're pretty safe."   
"I hope you're right..." Liam put the gun near the trapdoor as he opened it, and the others put the sacks on top. They climbed down to their hiding place, and as the trapdoor closed, the sacks fell forward to conceal it efficiently from unknowing eyes.   
Not, however, from the rather wet Magnaton looking through the window, one of the scouts sent out by the Dragonites... having taken cover from the hailstorm in a doorway across the street, it had watched everything... 

~-~-~-~ 

They were catching up on some sleep when the first explosion rocked the building. They all shot up and out of the dreamscape at once, fumbling and trying to figure out what the hell was going on...   
The second explosion sounded shortly after. Liam, Jess and Rob were already pounding down the corridor to the surface, James and Keira not too far behind. They flung open the trapdoor and were immediately soaked to the skin.   
"What the-" Liam's exclamation was cut off by a third explosion, and they all ducked back underground, their eyes not yet used to the bright light caused by the blast. When it had cooled enough to be properly seen, they looked up again.   
"Ah, you're up! Now get down again!" Called a female voice. "The pokemon are attacking in force! Get out of it!"   
"What?"   
Another explosion. One guy ran over to them. "Listen, they found the bloody base last night! Some bloody Magnaton found out where you were hiding and went around telling the city, and the Dragonites ordered an attack as soon as they were ready! You have to get out of he-aarrrgghhhh!"   
He suddenly screamed, clutching the collar around his neck. Liam growled and reached out, and with one quick movement snapped it in half.   
A sudden burst of electricity ensued, and the guy suddenly stiffened up, wide-eyed, and fell to the ground. Liam was unharmed. He snorted.   
"Paralysed, Russell was right. Pat! Are you down there?"   
"C-coming!" The tentative reply came back.   
"You idiots! Get down and get out of the bloody city!" Another voice called. It was Russell, and he was wielding the deadly Voltorb-bazooka with wild abandon. "And then blow the place up!"   
"What?"   
"We've got to help, guys!" Indeed, pokemon were pouring in from every angle, and beginning to overwhelm the mostly powerless humans. Russell and Judy were blowing up any particularly large concentration of pokemon, and electric attacks tended to behave erratically in the pouring rain, but they were slowly but surely advancing on the humans.   
"Come on!" Liam hauled himself out of the trapdoor and unleashed a series of flying rocks and treacherous grounds, making life difficult for the pokemon. The others were starting too, but then...   
Out of the shadows, seven huge shadowed figures marched. Both sides paused for a moment as the Dragonites entered most dramatically. Russell was the first to react, and the next Voltorb went tumbling towards the group.   
A burst of blue flame met it mid-air. It exploded, doing damage to nothing more than the earth around it.   
Jess began to charge an ice attack, but then the Dragons moved towards them threateningly. The guy who Liam had removed the collar from, now healed by Patrick, pushed them back.   
"Get out of here! We'll deal with the Dragonites!"   
"What?"   
"Listen, if you stay then a lot of us are going to die, and probably you too, and the pokemon will restart where they left off and we'll have lost six bloody powerful Vaekar. Do you know how much damage you've done to Ash's armies?" He winced as a Voltorb slammed into the ground just ahead of the Dragonites, forcing them to pause. "Get down there and then blow the whole bloody city to bits! We'll hold them off!"   
They paused, looking around at the carnage. Electric pokemon were flocking around now. "NOW! GET MOVING!" He shoved them roughly towards the trapdoor. They took one last glance at the city, then dropped back down.   
"I'll take you on, you overgrown lizards!" They heard him yell. A nasty scream sounded a second later. Liam scowled, and made a gesture; the floor underneath the trapdoor suddenly shot up, blocking passage.   
The sounds above ground were muffled now. Four more explosions sounded as they ran, but no more... there was silence...   
A sudden roaring sound came from further down the corridor, and a few seconds later a small wave of water caught up with their running. Liam reached back, and another area of floor slammed up to the ceiling. Jess manufactured an icy barrier, and Keira one of plants, but they were all nothing but delaying tactics...   
They soon ran into Jeff, quite literally. He was standing in the middle of the corridor. They all slowed down.   
"We've got to run! They're coming this way!"   
"I know... I've been watching on the cameras." He said softly.   
"We've got to get out of here!"   
"Listen - you remember I told you about a rail line that ran from here to Cerulean?"   
"Yeah, you said it didn't work..."   
"I... sorta lied about that..." He looked sheepish. "It does work, but it won't take you all the way to Cerulean. The line is broken, I don't know where, but you can take it out of here..."   
"Let's go then!"   
"Listen, I want you to get in that thing and do everything you can to make it as fireproof as possible!" He said, leading them through his room of Voltorb and into a smaller room. A large metal carriage lay there. "It will probably take them a while to find this place, the door's easy to miss. Then get moving. I'll try and stall for as long as possible, but when the Dragonites get in here I'm going to press the button."   
"Huh?"   
"I don't know how much damage a Dragonite can take, but my guess would be that a couple hundred Voltorbs exploding simultaneously is not something anything can survive. This place is going to go up like a nuke, and probably take out most of the city."   
"You're not going to stay through that!"   
"What am I going to do, come with you?" He laughed. "I'd just hold you back. I'm not built for adventuring. And it's not exactly a good time for a human to be wandering around free." He looked over his shoulder. "Look, just get in, okay? The further away you are, the less damage you're gonna take..."   
No-one could find anything to say. He just ushered them on to the carriage. He pulled a lever, and the carriage set off...   
"Let's see how master Ash likes this..." He whispered, pressing himself into a corner between two shelves of Voltorbs, peeking out through the gap, looking for his targets...   


~-~-~-~

Very little was said on the now very fast moving carriage. Jess had her hand pressed against the wall of the carriage, having peeled away the soft covering between her and it, cooling the metal down to near-unbearable temperatures. Liam had semi-encased the thing in rock, but wasn't sure how much that would help... James was trying to create a barrier around it, but wasn't having much success...   
None of them knew how much time had passed before the explosion occurred. Everything shook violently, and it threatened to come off the rails... the light went out, and everything was black, as it vibrated madly, but it managed to stay on track...   
That is, until the shock wave hit...   
The temperature inside suddenly rose as the waves of flame hit, and the entire thing was picked up and tossed around like a toy before the blast. Keira instinctively shot vines all around the cabin, softening the blow a bit, but it was still hard and painful...   
Everything grew hotter, fast... James and Jess concentrated as hard as they could on keeping it cool and protected, though this was hard while they were being thrown like rag dolls as the thing tumbled over and over, and they slammed into each other, walls and vines...   
It seemed like it would never end, but in the end they all blacked out... 


End file.
